Americaii  Reptiblic 

wad...... 

The  Debs  Insurrection 


iiACRACO, 


THE 


AMERICAN  REPUBLIC 


AND 


THE  DEBS  INSURRECTION 


Z.  Swift  Holbrook,  M.  A. 


OF    CHICAGO 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 


G.  Frederick  Wright,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 


OF  OBERLIN  COLLEGE 


OBERLIN,  OHIO 

BiBLIOTHECA  SACRA  CO. 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  the  BIBLIOTHECA  SACRA  COMPANY. 


-»/\  .4^^  Ao 


« 

»  «  Ye  shall  know  the  truth, 

a  And  the  truth  shall  make  you  free. 

«53  ,        —John  viii.  32 

G 


o 


*•-  THE  WAGE-EARNERS 


**;.  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES, 

'*  WHO,   SOONER   OR    LATER,    MUST   KNOW 

THE   WHOLE   TRUTH 

(''  AND   WHOSE    DELAY   IN   KNOWING   AND   ACCEPTING   IT, 

f- 

tk.  WHILE   IT   MAY   CAUSE   TEMPORARY   AND 

'^  OCCASIONAL   ANNOYANCE   TO   THE    PUBLIC, 

^  MUST   BRING  UPON   THEMSELVES 

.^  UNTOLD    MISERY   AND   SUFFERING, 

'^  THESE    PLAIN   TRUTHS   ARE    SPOKEN 

IN   THE    HOPE   THAT   THEY    MAY   BRING 

SOME    LIGHT   AND    LIFE. 


INTRODUCTION. 


TN  seeking  an  associate  to  edit  the  new  department  of  So- 
-*-  ciology  in  the  BiBLlOTHECA  Sacra,  of  which  I  had  been 
editor  for  several  years,  Mr.  Holbrook  was  selected,  not  only 
because  I  found  that  in  the  main  his  conclusions  agreed  with 
my  own,  but  largely  because  from  long  acquaintance  I  knew 
him  to  be  a  man  of  exceptionally  broad  sympathies  and  wide 
experience.  His  early  youth  was  spent  in  the  school  of  ad- 
versity and  stern  self-denial,  where  he  acquired  those  habits 
of  self-reliance  Vv^hich  carried  him,  by  his  own  efforts,  through 
a  five-years'  course  of  study  in  Yale  College,  and  secured  for 
him  afterwards  his  marked  business  success.  This  experi- 
ence, together  with  his  literary  ability,  gives  exceptional  value 
to  his  discussions  of  all  sociological  questions. 

The  present  papers,  republished  from  the  BiBLlOTHECA 
Sacra,  seem  fitted  for  a  much  wider  circulation  than  can  be 
afforded  to  them  in  the  pages  of  such  a  periodical.  They 
are  therefore  pointed  in  convenient  form,  and  at  a  low  price, 
that  all  may  have  them  within  reach. 

A  few  additional  preliminary  words  may  help  the  reader 
to  see  the  general  bearing  of  the  specific  line  of  thought 
pursued  in  Mr.  Holbrook's  contributions.  I  will,  therefore, 
give  a  brief  statement  of  some  of  the  fundamental  facts  and 
principles  which  should  ever  be  kept  in  view  in  our  efforts  to 
promote  the  well-being  of  society. 

1st.  Truth  does  not  permit  us  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
Nature's  gifts  are  neither  so  prodigal  nor  so  evenly  distrib- 


uted  as  many  seem  to  assume.  Civilization  is  the  product  only 
of  constant  toil  and  self-denial.  The  capital  necessary  to  at- 
tain the  ends  of  civilized  society  is  neither  easy  to  acquire 
nor  easy  to  keep.  At  no  time  is  there  on  hand  two-years' 
supply  of  provisions  for  the  world.  Starvation  is  never  far 
from  the  door  of  society  as  a  whole.  Even  the  solid  struct- 
ures forming  the  most  permanent  investments  of  capital  be- 
come worthless  if  neglected  for  only  a  few  years. 

2d.  An  equal  distribution  of  the  world's  goods  would 
scarcely  raise  at  all  the  general  level  of  comfort.  If  the 
profits  of  our  manufacturing  industries  were  wholly  distrib- 
uted among  their  employes,  it  would  add  only  about  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  to  their  daily  income.  According  to  the 
last  census,  the  total  products  of  the  industries  of  the  United 
States,  if  evenly  distributed  among  the  people,  would  amount 
to  less  than  fifty  cents  a  day  to  each  person.  Out  of  this 
narrow  margin,  provision  is  to  be  made  both  for  the  wants  of 
the  present  and  for  the  enlarged  plans  of  the  future.  If  all 
fortunes  should  be  brought  down  to  a  common  level,  instead 
of  its  making  all  rich,  it  would  make  all  poor,  and  the  condition 
of  things  would  tend  to  greater  and  greater  depths  of  poverty. 

3d.  The  safety  and  productiveness  of  capital  essential 
to  the  progress  of  society  depend  upon  utilizing  the  sagac- 
ity in  investment,  and  the  ability  in  organization  and  execu- 
tion, which  only  a  few  possess.  If  a  capitalist  builds  his 
factory  where  rents  are  too  high,  or  transportation  too  diffi- 
cult, or  the  market  too  limited,  or  the  cost  of  labor  too  great, 
or  the  adjustment  of  laborers  defective,  the  expenses  will 
soon  eat  up  the  capital ,  and  there  will  be  profit  to  nobody,  and 


ultimate  loss  to  all.  The  great  problem  is  to  secure  mana- 
gers of  business  possessing  such  knowledge  of  details,  and 
such  executive  ability,  that  they  can  reduce  the  waste  both 
of  labor  and  material  to  a  minimum.  It  is  difficult  to  see 
how  this  management  is  to  be  secured,  except  through  the 
free  play  of  competition,  which  permits  the  wage-earner  to 
rise  according  to  his  proved  ability.  The  working  men  of 
the  present  must  furnish  the  managers  of  the  future. 

4th.  The  true  philanthropist  keeps  in  view  the  welfare 
of  the  entire  population.  Mis  sympathies  are  not  expended 
chiefly  upon  the  most  clamorous;  that  would  indicate  great 
narrowness  of  view.  Sympathy  is  due  to  the  most  needy 
and  the  most  numerous  according  to  their  wants,  and  should 
be  broad  enough  to  comprehend  the  whole  circle  of  human 
interests.  It  is  not  true  philanthropy  to  give  a  man  bread 
without  work  when  his  whole  Avelfare  demands  that  he  should 
have  bread  zvith  work.  Moderate  wages  and  stability  of 
business  are  better  than  high  wages  and  instability. 

5th.  Organized  capitalists  and  organized  wage-earners 
constitute  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  people.  The  farming 
population  (constituting  in  itself  more  than  half  the  nation), 
together  with  those  who  are  rendering  personal  service,  and 
the  great  company  of  small  manufacturers,  small  tradesmen, 
and  common  laborers,  form  the  great  bulk  of  the  people,  out- 
numbering the  others  ten  to  one.  These  classes  are  su- 
premely interested  in  the  maintenance  of  stable  government, 
free  competition,  and  the  conditions  favorable  to  the  orderly 
conduct  of  business.  They  must  insist  upon  freedom  of 
commerce  and   transportation,  and  upon  the  freedom  of  the 


individual  in  securing  employment.  If  there  are  quarrels  be- 
tween organized  capitalists  and  organized  wage-earners,  they 
must  be  settled  without  infringing  upon  the  rights  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people. 

6th.  It  is  these  unorganized  masses  of  the  people  that 
most  need  defence  and  protection.  It  is  by  no  means  an 
unlikely  contingency  that,  for  example,  the  railroad  man- 
agers and  the  managers  of  the  labor  organizations  may  so 
combine  as  to  destroy  the  profits  of  railroad  investments, 
and  raise  the  price  of  railroad  transportation,  by  giving  ex- 
travagant salaries  to  the  officers  and  more  than  market  wages 
to  the  men  employed,  and  thus  burden  the  whole  country 
beyond  endurance,  and  produce  a  monopoly  of  the  most 
dangerous  kind. 

7th.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  wage-earners  them- 
selves that  they  be  held  to  the  same  high  standard  of  char- 
acter and  honor  which  is  set  up  for  men  in  general.  The 
ten  commandments  are  for  all.  A  wage-earner  cannot  af- 
ford to  have  his  contract  held  as  less  sacred  than  that  of  any 
other  man.  Otherwise  he  is  demoralized  and  dishonored  at 
the  very  outset,  and  cannot  have  the  blessings  which  come 
to  the  man  who  when  he  swears  to  his  own  hurt  changes 
not.  One  of  the  most  alarming  things  in  connection  with 
the  strikes  which  from  time  to  time  paralyze  the  business  of 
the  country,  is  the  readiness  with  which  the  wage-earners 
are  led  to  disregard  their  contracts  and  to  violate  their  word. 
Since,  as  the  laws  are  now  so  enacted,  it  is  impossible  to  en- 
force a  contract  against  a  poor  man,  there  is  all  the  greater 
need  that  the  sentiment  of  honor  be  strengthened  in  his  mind. 


For  a  wage-earner  solemnly  to  engage  to  do  a  piece  of  work 
and  then,  without  due  notice,  to  break  his  contract  at  the  beck 
of  a  labor  organization  is  as  injurious  to  him  as  it  is  unjust 
to  the  employer  and  cruel  to  the  public. 

8th.  It  is  impossible  to  secure  any  successful  social 
conditions  in  the  world  except  on  the  basis  of  noble  charac- 
ter. Mr.  Holbrook  is  entirely  right  in  insisting  upon  this 
principle.  Any  theory  of  human  society  which  does  not 
provide  against  the  all-prevalent  perversions  of  conduct  con- 
nected with  human  sinfulness  must  be  disappointing  and  dis- 
astrous. At  every  point  we  have  to  guard  against  the  temp- 
tations to  negligence  of  opportunities  and  perversion  of  trusts 
to  which  both  ourselves  and  others  are  constantly  subjected. 

9th.  While  it  is  a  hopeful  view  which  we  entertain  of 
the  future,  the  hopefulness  mainly  rests  upon  our  confidence 
in  the  capacity  of  man's  higher  nature  to  lift  him  above  his 
environment  and  make  him  the  master  of  circumstances, 
rather  than  their  creature.  It  is  true  that  we  are  bound  to 
do  all  we  can  to  secure  a  perfect  environment  for  each  indi- 
vidual. But  a  perfect  environment  will  be  one  which  throws 
great  responsibility  upon  the  individual.  Nobody  can  be 
made  happy  against  his  will,  or  be  made  noble  without  his 
own  exertions.  On  the  contrary,  men  of  high  aspirations 
can  rise  superior  to  almost  any  environment.  The  world  is 
lull  of  successful  men  who  have  by  conquering  difficulties 
made  themselves  strong,  and  thereby  acquired  the  power  of 
achieving  success. 

loth.  Practically  I  have  found  it  extremely  difficult  to 
persuade  young  people  to  see  the  advantage  of  certain  essen- 


tial  forms  of  self-denial  in  the  beginning  of  life.  To  abstain 
from  the  use  of  tobacco  and  alcoholic  beverages,  and  from 
attendance  upon  cheap  and  demoralizing  shows,  and  devote 
the  time  and  money  thus  spent,  in  improving  the  mind,  or  in 
perfecting  one's  trade,  would  make  the  fortune  of  many  a 
boy  who  has  no  encouragement  in  these  directions  either 
among  his  companions  or  at  his  home.  To  provide  motives 
which  shall  secure  such  a  high  standard  of  personal  charac- 
ter in  the  units  of  society  is  the  most  important  service  which 
can  be  rendered  to  it. 

I  ith.  If  the  time  which  is  now  spent  in  embittering  the 
children  of  the  wage-earners  by  exaggerated  representations 
of  the  hardness  of  their  lot,  and  in  filling  their  minds  with 
perverted  notions  of  the  way  to  success,  were  spent  in  per- 
suading them  to  appreciate  the  advantages  they  already  have, 
untold  results  would  be  witnessed  in  the  improvement  of  so- 
ciety and  in  the  enrichment  of  individual  and  family  life. 

When  free  libraries  are  inviting  all  to  revel  in  their  inex- 
haustible stores  of  varied  entertainment  and  useful  knowledge; 
when,  for  the  price  of  two  cigars,  one  can  purchase  a  copy  of 
Robinson  Crusoe  or  two  plays  of  Shakespeare;  and  when, for  the 
price  of  admittance  to  a  cheap  variety  show,  one  can  become  the 
owner  of  Macaulay's  Essays,  or  of  a  standard  history  of  Eng- 
land; and,  for  a  week's  wages,  can  purchase  a  well-selected 
library,  it  is  idle  to  say  that  the  road  to  true  success  is  closed 
to  the  masses.  There  is  far  more  need  of  a  revival  of  high 
aspiration  on  the  part  of  the  young  than  there  is  of  a  revival 
of  business.  Indeed  this  would  be  a  revival  of  business.  To 
learn  to  appreciate  and  improve  such  advantages  as  are  now 


within  the  reach  of  all  is  of  more  worth  to  the  individual 
than  the  acquisition  of  a  fortune  would  be. 

1 2th.  But  when  all  has  been  done  that  is  possible  to 
increase  the  production  of  wealth  and  equalize  its  distribu- 
tion, and  to  stimulate  the  highest  ideals  of  conduct  and 
character,  there  will  still  be  many  disappointments,  great 
sorrow,  and  much  suffering  in  the  world.  No  one  can  cer- 
tainly forecast  the  future.  In  our  turn  we  shall  all  need  the 
sympathy  of  friends  and  the  consolations  of  religion.  The 
riches  of  the  capitalist  will  often  take  wings  and  fly  away, 
the  efforts  of  the  husbandman  will  occasionally  fail,  and  the 
labor  market  will  be  subject  to  fluctuations  which  cannot  be 
wholly  provided  against.  But  amid  the  natural  relationships 
of  free  society  these  shocks  will  be  so  relieved  by  the  sym- 
pathy of  friends  and  the  thoughtfulness  of  the  followers  of 
Christ  that  the  force  of  our  disappointments  will  be  greatly 
broken.  To  the  virtuous,  wherever  noble  ideas  are  honored 
and  maintained,  life  will  be  full  of  gain.  In  such  a  society 
even  the  selfish  instincts  of  men  will  be  made  useful. 

I  feel  sure  that  Mr.  Holbrook's  straightforward  and 
manly  discussions  of  these  themes  are  needed,  and  that  they 
will  be  most  helfjful;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  criticisms 
which  his  writings  will  probably  provoke  may  be  equally 
useful  in  clearing  the  mists  from  the  sociological  sky.  Only 
by  such  frank  discussion  can  the  truth  come  to  the  light 
and  be  made  to  prevail. 

G.  Frederick  Wright. 

Oberlin,  Ohio,  February  i,  1895. 


THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  DEBS 
INSURRECTION. 


rUHE  American  Republic  is  the  fruitage  of  a  religious  in- 
j  spiration.  Our  democratic  institutions,  our  notions  of 
liberty  and  equality,  had  their  origin  with  men  who  practised 
every  form  of  self-denial,  that  they  might  be  free  from  hie- 
rarchical authority  and  worship  God  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  conscience.  They  were  not  men,  like  the  colony 
that  landed  at  Jamestown  in  1607,  moved  by  the  spirit  of 
adventure  or  by  the  desire  to  acquire, — both  worthy  and 
useful  passions  when  subordinated  to  higher  ends, — but  they 
came  to  an  unknown  land,  braving  the  perils  of  the  sea  and 
enduring  the  privations  incident  to  such  a  perilous  journey, 
that  they  might  have  freedom  to  worship  God. 

To  what  extent  these  men  had  caught  the  inspiration 
of  Luther  and  had  given  it  a  new  interpretation,  need  not 
here  be  traced  ;  but  the  age  was  one  of  discovery,  of  hero- 
ism, of  adventure,  of  awalcened  intellect, — giving  the  world 
the  revival  of  faith,  hope,  and  learning.  It  was  the  Eliza- 
bethan Age  in  literature.  It  was  the  period  of  the  centuries 
when,  freed  from  the  bonds  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  indi- 
vidualism burst  the  barriers  which  had  restrained  it,  and  men 
took  on  new  conceptions  of  liberty  and  of  individual  worth. 


Man  as  an  individual,  a  unit,  free  and  independent  in  his  re- 
lations to  the  unseen,  and  bound  by  social  compacts  only 
because  thus  his  individualism  found  higher  freedom  and 
fuller  development, — this  was  the  conception  that  inspired 
the  men  who  founded  this  Republic,  and  was  enunciated  by 
those  ablest  minds  and  choicest  spirits  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

It  was  not  a  mere  intellectual  conception;  it  was  a  spir- 
itual experience,  involving  the  conscience,  and  having  prac- 
tical relations  with  life,  liberty,  property,  and  reputation. 
For  these  very  reasons  it  led  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans 
across  the  sea. 

When  man  has  tasted  the  sweets  of  liberty,  persecution 
augments,  but  it  cannot  destroy,  its  growth.  Wyclif  caught 
the  idea  one  hundred  and  forty  years  before  Luther,  and 
taught  that  the  New  Testament  is  a  sufficient  guide  in  church 
government.  The  growth  of  that  idea  and  its  final  perma- 
nency in  men's  minds,  before  the  assent  of  king  and  priest, 
cost  many  lives  and  untold  suffering.  Henry  VIII.,  Edward 
VL,  Bloody  Mary,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  found  people  who, 
with  Peter,  said,  It  is  right  to  obey  God  rather  than  men. 
That  class  sought  to  purify  the  church, — its  clergy,  its  mem- 
bership, its  forms  of  worship,  and  its  ordinances.  They 
were  known  as  Puritans.  It  was  a  common  thing  for  them 
to  resist  unto  the  death  any  attempt  of  human  authority  to 
take  the  place  of  Christ  over  the  conscience. 

While  democratic  and  social  equality  were  terms  that 
in  163 1  had  no  meaning,  for  no  one  could  have  a  voice  in 
town  affairs  unless  he  had  been  elected  a  freeman  by  the 


3 

Court,  and,  after  May  31,  163 1,  unless  he  was  a  church 
member,  yet  Robert  Browne,  the  founder  of  the  first  Congre- 
g-ational  church  in  Norwich,  England,  in  1580, 

"clearly  stated  and  defended  the  theory  that  every  man  had  a  right  to 
choose  and  practice  such  religion  as  his  conscience  approved;  and  that 
the  king,  hierarchy  or  magistrate  had  no  right  to  meddle  in  any  way  with 
his  liberty  of  conscience.  .  .  .  This  defense  of  absolute  toleration  by 
Browne  is  a  whole  generation  before  the  writers  whom  the  Baptist  histo- 
rians claim  to  be  the  originators  and  two  generations  before  Roger 
Williams."^ 

No  student  of  history  in  the  historical  development  of 
modern  free  thought  can  ignore  the  origin,  growth,  and  de- 
velopment of  Congregationalism. 

"New  England  was  settled  under  this  polity,  and  its  influence  was 
dominant  for  two  centuries  in  moulding  New  England  institutions,"  ^ 

As  the  individual  was  the  unit  of  power  in  church  and 
state,  it  was  essential  that  all  the  citizens  should  be  edu- 
cated; hence  colleges  and  free  schools  were  established  at 
the  outset. 

"This  zeal  for  education  prompted  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to 
found  a  college  before  they  were  yet  free  from  the  perils  of  starvation, 
and  to  establish  a  complete  system  of  free  schools  before  the  first  gener- 
ation born  in  their  new  home  had  passed  the  age  of  childhood."^ 

Thus  the  Pilgrims  of  1620  from  Holland  and  the  Pur- 
itans from  England  (of  whom  some  22,000  came  over 
between  1630  and  1640)  laid  those  solid  foundation-stones 
— religion,  morality,  knowledge — which  have  ever  been  the 
basis  of  our  institutions.  It  was  a  most  felicitous  and  prov- 
idential union,  that — the  Pilgrim  a  Separatist  and  the  Puri- 
1  William  Frederick  Poole,  in  Dial,  August,  1880. 


tan  an  Independent;  for  it  combined  the  intense  religious 
zeal  and  other-worldliness  of  the  one,  tuned  to  so  high  a 
pitch,  with  the  healthy  regard  for  this  world  and  the  prac- 
tical affairs  of  life  so  characteristic  of  the  other.  The  Pil- 
grim was  earnest  to  secure  a  mansion  in  the  skies;  while  the 
Puritan,  none  the  less  zealous  for  that  heavenly  home,  kept 
his  economic  eye  on  a  corner  lot  on  earth.  The  Massachu- 
setts Colony  soon  learned  to  know  cod  no  less  than  religion; 
and  they  mixed  in  delightful  proportions  a  zeal  for  fishery 
and  whaling  with  that  for  religious  discussions  and  pro- 
tracted meetings;  they  compounded  in  an  ingenious  manner 
a  love  for  New  England  rum  with  a  clear  conscience  toward 
God;  "pine-tree  shillings  and  piety";  a  love  for  heaven  and 
a  perfect  willingness  to  remain  on  earth. 

But  the  Puritans,  under  Governor  Winthrop,  were  moulded 
in  their  religious  and  intellectual  life  by  the  Pilgrims.  The 
Puritans  had  attempted  in  England  to  purify  and  reform  the 
church  through  the  State;  but  when  on  American  soil  they 
soon  saw  that  the 

"best  service  the  State  can  render  to  religion  is  to  leave  it  free  to  live  and 
act  according  to  its  own  nature,  in  obedience  to  its  own  laws,  prompted 
by  its  own  impulses,  guided  by  its  own  spirit  and  judgment." ^ 

The  Cambridge  Platform  of  1648  has  been  the  authori- 
tative manual  of  the  church  for  two  centuries,  and  a  compar- 
ison of  it  with  the  Declaration  of  the  National  Council  of  1871 
will  reveal  how  clearly  and  uniformly  Congregationalism  has 
moved  along  a  definite  -line  of  thought  in  its  polity. 

The  compact  in  the  Mayflower  was  a  covenant  binding 
1  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  "  Independent." 


the  Pilgrims  to  all  due  submission  and  obedience  unto  such 
just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offi- 
cers from  time  to  time  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and 
convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  community;  and  they 
clearly  stated  that  they  combined  into  a  civil  body-politic  for 
their  better  ordering  and  preservation.  And  the  motive  as- 
serted was  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Christian  faith.      As  De  Tocqueville  well  says, 

"A  democracy  more  perfect  than  any  which  antiquity  had  dreamed 
of  started  in  full  size  and  panoply  from  the  midst  of  an  ancient  feudal  so- 
ciety."^ 

The  divine  and  natural  order  for  the  development  of  so- 
ciety are  all  on  the  Mayflower  in  the  germ.  Religion  seeking 
divine  assistance,  and  wisdom,  with  good-will  toward  one 
another,  which  is  its  natural  fruitage;  or,  in  other  words,  mo- 
rality; and  evincing  itself  in  the  loftiest  notions  of  liberty  and 
equality.  This  is  the  true  historical  and  scientific  develop- 
ment;  for,  as  De  Tocqueville  says, 

"  Liberty  cannot  be  established  without  morality,  nor  morality  with- 
out faith."  ^ 

As  has  been  said:  "  Here  was  the  spirit  of  religion  and 
the  spirit  of  liberty,  which  so  often  were  in  open  conflict," 
happily  combined  and  united  to  accomplish  a  result.  And 
what  was  that  result.''  Congregationalism  in  religious  affairs 
and  democracy  in  civil  affairs,  for  democracy  implies  equality, 
— one  being  the  same  as  another  in  law. 

As  to  the  notions  of  liberty  which  prevailed  among  the 
Puritans  who  came  over  with  Governor  Winthrop  in  June, 
1630,  hear  what  he  says: — 

1  Democracy  in  America,  p.  35.        ^  Jbid.,  p.  n. 


"Nor  would  I  have  you  to  mistake  in  the  point  of  your  own  liberty. 
There  is  a  liberty  of  corrupt  nature  which  is  affected  both  by  men  and 
beasts  to  do  what  they  list;  and  this  liberty  is  inconsistent  with  authority, 
impatient  of  all  restraint;  by  this  liberty,  ' sumiis  o?tines  deteriores' :  'tis 
the  grand  enemy  of  truth  and  peace,  and  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are 
bent  against  it.  But  there  is  a  civil,  a  moral,  a  federal  liberty  which  is 
the  proper  end  and  object  of  authority;  it  is  a  liberty  for  that  only  which 
is  just  and  good:  for  this  liberty  you  are  to  stand  with  the  hazard  of  your 
very  lives,  and  whatsoever  crosses  it,  is  not  authority  but  a  distemper 
thereof.  This  liberty  is  maintained  in  a  way  of  subjection  to  authority;  and 
the  authority  set  over  you  will,  in  all  administrations  for  your  good,  be 
quietly  submitted  unto  by  all  but  such  as  have  a  disposition  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  and  lose  their  true  liberty,  by  their  murmuring  at  the  honour  and 
power  of  authority."  ^ 

This  whole  conception  of  liberty  is  biblical,  and  founded 
on  Christ's  definition,  that  only  truth  (or  law)  can  set  free. 
This  idea  of  liberty  became  the  sentiment  of  New  England; 
and  Governor  John  Treadvvell,  of  Connecticut,  wrote  a  letter 
to  Rev.  Nathaniel  Emmons,  July  ii,  1800,  in  which  he  says: 

"  Liberty  I  love;  but  it  is  that  liberty  which  results  from  the  most  per- 
fect subjugation  of  every  soul  to  the  empire  of  law,  and  not  that  which  is 
sought  by  illuminers  and  atheists."  ^ 

Weeden  says: — 

"  In  1641  these  legislators  whether  in  their  political  or  ecclesiastical 
capacity  never  conceived  any  polity  which  should  grant  freedom  of  action 
in  the  modern  sense.  They  did  not  believe  such  a  society  to  be  possible 
and  they  would  not  have  considered  it  desirable.  Freedom  and  liberty 
meant  the  working  out  of  a  life  soberly  restrained  according  to  the  will  of 
the  majority.  This  major  will  was  directed  divinely  through  the  medium 
of  the  Bible  interpreted  by  pastors  and  elders.  This  was  the  mind  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut." ^ 

^  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy,  p.  42. 

2  Biography  of  Emmons,  by  Edwards  A.  Park. 

3  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,  Vol.  i.  p.  179. 


Josiah  Quincy  said,  that  liberty  of  conscience  would  have 
produced  anarchy  in  the  seventeenth  century.  This  concep- 
tion of  liberty  and  equality  is  the  gift  of  Congregationalism 
to  the  Republic,  and  its  fruitage  is  seen  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  high 
thought  of  obedience  to  law: — 

"  Let  reverence  for  law  be  breathed  by  every  mother  to  the  lisping 
babe  that  prattles  In  her  lap;  let  it  be  taught  in  the  schools,  seminaries 
and  colleges;  let  it  be  written  in  primers,  spelling-books  and  almanacs; 
let  it  be  preached  from  pulpits  and  proclaimed  in  legislative  halls  and  en- 
forced in  courts  of  justice;  in  short  let  it  become  the  political  religion  of 
the  nation." 

The  late  Dr.  William  Frederick  Poole  wrote  as  follows: — 

"  The  rise  and  growth  of  Congregationalism  make  an  important  chap- 
ter in  the  historical  development  of  modern  free  thought.  It  is  in  religion 
what  democracy  is  in  the  conduct  of  civil  affairs.  It  inculcates  the  duty 
and  right  of  each  individual  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  for  himself  and 
vests  all  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  brotherhood  of  each  local  church  as 
an  independent  body.  Every  other  human  authority  in  spiritual  affairs, 
whether  it  be  council,  hierarchy  or  synod,  it  rejects  together  with  all  anti- 
quated symbols,  rites,  functionaries  and  other  machinery  which  come  be- 
tween the  individual  soul  and  its  Maker.  It  is  the  exaltation  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  the  dethronement  of  all  outside  spiritual  dictation.  .  .  .  It  was 
the  polity  under  which  New  England  was  settled,  and  there  it  was  the 
dominant  influence  for  two  centuries  in  moulding  its  institutions.  It  is  not 
strange  that  a  system  so  unlike  that  of  England  and  the  other  nations  of 
Europe  should  have  wrought  out  an  independent  and  peculiar  people. 
As  the  individual  was  the  unit  of  power  in  Church  and  State,  it  was  essen- 
tia] that  all  the  citizens  should  be  educated;  and  hence  colleges  and  free 
schools  were  established  at  the  outset.  Such  a  development  of  individ- 
ualism was  necessarily  the  occasion  of  many  internal  controversies  and 
disputes;  but  both  State  and  Church  withstood  the  strain,  grew  strong 
under  it,  and  enjoyed  a  material  and  social  prosperity  such  as  fell  to  the 
lot  of  none  of  the  other  early  American  colonies."  ^ 

^  Poole's  review  of  Dexter's  Congregationalism,  in  the  Dial,  1880. 


On  September  4,  1633,  there  arrived  in  Boston  a  man  of 
heroic  faith  and  scholarly  attainments, — the  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker.  His  coming  was  destined  to  have  far-reaching  re- 
sults in  its  effect  on  the  life  and  development  of  the  colonies; 
for  he  was  the  one  who  inspired  the  Connecticut  Constitu- 
tion, and  first  stated  clearly,  not  only  the  right  of  the  people 
to  elect  their  magistrates,  but  to  limit  them  in  their  powers 
by  laws  which  they  must  follow.  In  other  words,  the  abso- 
lute sovereignty  of  the  people,  or  democracy  in  its  modern 
sense. 

Mr.  Hooker  had  been  a  fellow  of  Emmanuel  College, 
Cambridge,  England,  and  had  been  influenced  profoundly  by 
the  teachings  of  that  most  eminent  divine,  Thomas  Cart- 
wright.  It  is  significant  that  Emmanuel  College  was  regarded 
as  a  Puritan  institution,  and  the  men  it  graduated  were  all  of 
a  distinct  and  pronounced  type.  Such  were  Robert  Browne, 
Nathaniel  Ward  of  Ipswich,  Thomas  Hooker,  and  John  Cot- 
ton. For  his  opinions,  Mr.  Hooker  was  persecuted,  and  cited 
to  appear  before  the  High  Commission  Court  in  England, 
July  10,  1630.  He  fled  to  Holland  and  then  to  America.  His 
ideas  of  liberty,  equality,  and  democracy  were  dearly  bought. 
They  were  not  intellectual  discoveries;  they  were  spiritual  ex- 
periences.    Hear  his  words: — 

"  We  (as  it  becometh  Christians)  stand  upon  the  sufficiency  of  Christ's 
institutions,  for  all  kynde  of  worship;  and  that  exclusively  the  word  and 
nothing  but  the  word,  in  matters  of  Religious  worship.  .  .  .  Christ  we 
'  know;  and  all  that  cometh  from  him  we  are  ready  to  embrace.  But 
these  human  ceremonies  in  divine  worship  we  know  not,  nor  can  have 
anything  to  doe  with  them."  ^ 

1  Walker's  Life  of  Hooker  (Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.),  p.  58. 


Hooker  was  a  giant  in  stature,  in  faith,  and  in  intellect. 

After  remaining  in   Massachusetts  a  few  years,  he  went  to 

Hartford,  Conn.,  in  1636.     It  is  well  to  remember  that  the 

Massachusetts  government  was  not,  and  was  never  intended 

to  be,  democratic.^     Mr.  Hookei^  was  exceedingly  jealous  for 

popular  liberty,  and  his  influence  among  his  early  associates 

in  the  Massachusetts  Colony  is  revealed  by  the  statement, 

made  by  an  early  chronicler,  that, 

"after  Mr.  Hooker's  coming  over, it  was  observed  that  many  of  the  free- 
men grew  to  be  very  jealous  of  their  liberties."  ^ 

In  the  autumn  of  1638,  Governor  Winthrop,  who  was 

an  aristocrat,  and  had  never  divested  himself  of  aristocratic 

notions,  even  in  government,  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hooker^ 

expostulating  with  him  about — 

"  the  unwarrantableness  and  unsafeness  of  referring  matters  of  counsel 
01  judicature  to  the  body  of  the  people,  because  the  best  part  is  always 
the  least,  and  of  that  best  part  the  wiser  part  is  always  the  lesser." 

Mr.  Hooker  replied  that  the  judges  must  simply  enforce 
the  law,  and  the  general  counsel  should  be  chosen  by  all; 
and  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  otherwise  it  would 
lead  to  tyranny  and  so  to  confusion.  He  says,  he  would 
choose  neither  to  live  nor  to  leave  his  property  under  such  a 
government.  He  quotes  the  Scriptures  for  his  authority.* 
The  late  historian  of  Connecticut,  Alexander  Johnston,  says 
that  this  letter  to  Winthrop  might  be  made  the  foundation 
of  the  claim  that  Mr.  Hooker  had  supplied  the  spirit  of  the 
Connecticut  Constitution.^ 

1  Walker's  Hooker  p.  119.        ^  Hubbard's  General  History,  p.  265. 
3  Winthrop,  ii.  428.        *  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.  11,  12. 
5  Johnston's  Conn.,  p.  71. 


lO 

In  Massachusetts,  the  advice  of  the  ministers  of  the 
churches  was  sought  and  followed  as  the  practice,  and  Mass- 
achusetts was  theocratic  and  aristocratic,  for  both  John  Cot- 
ton and  Governor  Winthrop  contended  for  this;  but  the  first 
written  constitution  in  human  history  was  that  of  Connect- 
icut, adopted  in  1639,  and  it  was  framed  clearly  on  these 
lines  marked  out  by  Mr.  Hooker.  There  was  an  adjourned 
session  of  the  General  Court  in  April,  1638.  To  this  Court, 
says  Dr.  Trumbull,  was  intrusted  the  formation  of  that  Con- 
stitution which  was  formally  adopted  in  January,  1639.  On 
Thursday,  May  31,  1638,  Mr.  Hooker  preached  a  sermon 
before  the  General  Court,  and  he  held: — 

"Doctrine.  I.  That  the  choice  of  public  magistrates  belongs  unto 
the  people  by  God's  own  allowance. 

"II.  The  privilege  of  election,  which  belongs  to  the  people,  there- 
fore must  not  be  exercised  according  to  their  humors,  but  according  to 
the  blessed  will  and  law  of  God. 

"III.  They  who  have  the  power  to  appoint  officers  and  magistrates, 
it  is  in  their  power,  also,  to  set  the  bounds  and  limitations  of  the  power 
and  place  unto  which  they  call  them. 

"Reasons,  i.  Because  the  foundation  of  authority  is  laid,  firstly,  in 
the  free  consent  of  the  people. 

"2.  Because,  by  a  free  choice,  the  hearts  of  the  people  will  be 
more  inclined  to  the  love  of  the  persons  [chosen]  and  more  ready  to  yield 
[obedience]. 

"3.     Because  of  that  duty  and  engagement  of  the  people."^ 

Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  said: — 

"  That  sermon  by  Thomas  Hooker,  from  the  pulpit  of  the  first  church 
in  Hartford,  is  the  earliest  known  suggestion  of  a  fundamental  law,  en- 
acted not  by  royal  charter,  nor  by  concession  from  any  previously  exist- 
ing government,  but  by  the  people  themselves, — a  primary  and  supreme 

1  Walker's  Life  of  Hooker,  p.  125. 


law  by  which  the  government  is  constituted,  and  which  not  only  provides 
for  the  free  choice  of  magistrates  by  the  people,  but  also  sets  the  bounds 
and  hmitations  of  the  power  and  place  to  which  each  magistrate  is  called."  ^ 

Professor  Alexander  Johnston  says: — 

"Here  is  the  tirst  practical  assertion  of  the  right  of  the  people,  not 
only  to  choose  but  to  limit  the  powers  of  their  rulers, — an  assertion  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  American  system."'^ 

John  Fiske  says: — 

"The  Connecticut  Constitution  was  the  iirst  written  Constitution 
known  to  history  that  created  a  government,  and  it  marked  the  begin- 
nings of  American  democracy,  of  which  Thomas  Hooker  deserves  more 
than  any  other  man  to  be  called  the  father.  The  government  of  the 
United  States  to-day  is  in  lineal  descent  more  nearly  related  to  that  of 
Connecticut  than  to  that  of  any  other  of  the  thirteen  colonies."  ^ 

In  May,  1639,  Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr.  Haynes  went  to 
Massachusetts  to  renew  negotiations  about  the  Confedera- 
tion which  had  been  unsuccessfully  begun  two  )'ears  before. 
Mr.  Hooker  preached  a  sermon  of  more  than  two  hours  in 
length  before  the  Governor,  and  we  know  that  the  result  of 
this  visit  was  an  agreement  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
various  Colonies  in  twelve  articles,  which  constituted  in.  ef- 
fect, for  certain  matters  of  common  interest,  a  federal  gov- 
ernment under  the  title  of  the  "  United  Colonies  of  New 
England."*  This  Federal  Constitution  prepared  the  way 
for  that  of  1787. 

We  now  turn  to  another  step  in  the  development  of  our 
national  political  life,  and  again  we  find  the  moving  spirit 
was  a  Congregational  clergyman.      We  refer  to  the  famous 

1  Centennial  Conf.  Address,  pp.  152,  153.  2  Conn.,  p.  72. 

s  Beginnings  of  New  England,  pp.  127,  128.    *  Winthrop,  ii.  121,  127. 


"Body  of  Liberties,"  which  Massachusetts  Bay  adopted  in 
1641,  and  which  was  mainly  the  work  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Ward,  of  Ipswich,  who  graduated  at  Emmanuel  College  in 
1603,  one  year  before  Thomas  Hooker  entered.  This  "Body 
of  Liberties"  formed  the  basis  of  the  law  and  civil  government 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony. 

"  In  one  hundred  sections  it  lays  down  the  substantial  principles  se- 
curing life,  liberty,  property,  etc.,  and  the  methods  of  civil  administration 
adapted  to  the  time.  It  was  fully  studied  and  amended  in  the  towns,  and 
was  adopted  in  the  most  deliberate  way."  ^ 

Nathaniel  Ward  had  studied  law  in  England,  and  he  was 
of  course  most  intimate  with  Thomas  Hooker;  for,  not  only 
as  graduates  of  the  same  college,  but  in  their  weekly  minis- 
ters' meetings,  they  must  have  met  often  and  compared  views. 
This  is  significant,  for  both  Nathan  Dane  and  Rev.  Manasseh 
Cutler,  who  wrote  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  came  from  the  same 
town  as  Ward, — Ipswich.^  The  laws  and  customs  of  New 
England  were  enforced  by  the  magistrates  in  the  spirit  of  a 
"sacred  trust,"  for  they  were  not  accustomed  to  use  office  for 
personal  ends. 

We  now  pass  to  the  most  important  of  all  legislative  en- 
actments that  Congress  ever  passed  with  regard  to  the  pub- 
lic domain, — the  Ordinance  of  1787. 

Mr.  Shosuke  Sato,^  after  reviewing  carefully  the  claims 

1  Weeden,  Vol.  i.  p.  'j']. 

2  So  far  as  we  know,  the  significant  fact  has  not  heretofore  been  no- 
ticed that,  whoever  wrote  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  whether  Nathan  Dane, 
as  stated  by  Daniel  Webster,  or  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler,  as  stated  by  Dr. 
Poole,  it  emanated  from  Ipswich,  Mass.,  the  home  of  Nathaniel  Ward, 
the  author  of  the  Body  of  Liberties. 

3  Land  Question  in  the  United  States. 


13 

of  different  men  to  the  authorship  of  the  Ordinance,  says: — 
"  Mr.  Poole's  article  remains  the  masterpiece  on  the  subject  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1787." 

This  article  of  Dr.  Poole ^  says: — 

"On  the  13th  of  July,  1787,  the  Congress  of  the  old  Confederation, 
sitting  in  New  York,  passed  an  'Ordinance  for  the  Government  of  the 
Territory  Northwest  of  the  River  Ohio,'  which  has  passed  into  history  as 
the  'Ordinance  of  1787.' 

"The  territory  embraced  what  is  now  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin.  Its  provisions  have  since  been  applied 
to  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  lying  north  of  latitude  36°  40', 
which  now  comprises  the  States  of  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  and  Ore- 
gon. August  7,  1789,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  having  then 
been  adopted.  Congress  among  its  earliest  acts  passed  one  recognizing 
the  binding  force  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  adapting  its  provisions  to 
the  Federal  Constitution. 

"The  Ordinance,  in  the  breadth  of  its  conceptions,  its  details,  and  its 
results,  has  been  perhaps  the  most  notable  instance  of  legislation  that  was 
ever  enacted  by  the  representatives  of  the  American  people.  It  fixed 
forever  the  character  of  the  immigration,  and  of  the  social,  political,  and 
educational  institutions  of  the  people  who  were  to  inhabit  this  imperial 
territory, — then  a  wilderness,  but  now  covered  by  five  great  States,  and 
teeming  with  more  than  ten  million  persons,  or  one-fourth  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  United  States.  It  forever  prohibited  slavery  and  invol- 
untary servitude, — that  pestilent  element  of  discord  and  tyranny  in  our 
American  system,  which  then  existed  in  all  the  States  except  Massachu- 
setts, where  it  had  come  to  an  end  by  a  decision  of  its  Supreme  Court 
only  four  years  before.  It  declared  that  'religion,  morality,  and  knowl- 
edge being  necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind, 
schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  always  be  encouraged.'  It  pro- 
hibited the  feudal  law  of  primogeniture,  and  provided  that  the  property 
of  a  parent  dying  intestate  should  be  divided  equally  among  his  children 
or  next  of  kin;  that  no  person  demeaning  himself  in  a  peaceable  and  or- 
derly manner  shall  ever  be  molested  on  account  of  his  mode  of  worship 
or  religious  sentiments;  that  the  inhabitants  shall  always  be  entitled  to 

1  North  American  Review,  April,  1876. 


the  benefits  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  of  trial  by  jury,  of  a  propor- 
tional representation  in  the  legislature,  and  of  judicial  proceedings  ac- 
cording to  the  course  of  the  common  law;  that  all  persons  shall  be  bail- 
able unless  for  capital  offences,  when  the  proof  shall  be  evident,  or  the 
presumption  great;  that  all  fines  shall  be  moderate,  and  no  cruel  and  un- 
usual punishment  shall  be  inflicted;  that  no  man  shall  be  deprived  of  his 
liberty  or  property  but  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  the  law  of  the 
land;  and  should  the  public  exigencies  make  it  necessary  to  take  any 
man's  property,  or  to  demand  his  particular  services,  full  compensation 
shall  be  made  for  the  same;  and  in  the  just  preservation  of  his  rights  and 
property,  it  is  understood  and  declared  that  no  law  ought  ever  to  be  made 
or  have  force  in  sajd  territory  that  shall  in  any  manner  whatever  interfere 
with  or  affect  private  contracts  or  engagements  bona  fide  and  without 
fraud  previously  made. 

"This  was  the  first  embodiment  in  written  constitutional  law  of  a  pro- 
vision maintaining  the  obligation  of  contracts.  Six  weeks  later  it  was,  on 
motion  of  Mr.  King,  of  Massachusetts,  incorporated  in  the  draft  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

"  .  .  .  .  Every  square  mile  of  territory  that  was  covered  by  the  Or- 
dinance of  1787  was  patriotic,  and  gave  its  men  and  its  means  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Union." 

"  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler,  of  Ipswich,  Mass.,  arrived  July  5th. 

"  In  April,  1788,  the  Ohio  Company  made  the  first  English  settlement 
of  the  Northwest  Territory  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mus- 
kingum, on  the  land  which  Dr.  Cutler  had  bought  on  this  occasion.  Gen- 
eral Washington,^  writing  from  Mount  Vernon,  two  months  later,  said: 
'  No  colony  in  America  was  ever  settled  under  such  favorable  auspices  as 
that  which  has  just  commenced  at  the  Muskingum.  Information,  prop- 
erty, and  strength  will  be  its  characteristics.  I  know  many  of  the  settlers 
personally,  and  there  never  were  men  better  calculated  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  such  a  community.  If  I  were  a  young  man,  just  preparing  to 
begin  the  world,  or,  if  advanced  in  life  and  had  a  family  to  make  pro- 
vision for,  I  know  of  no  country  where  I  should  rather  fix  my  habitation 
than  in  some  part  of  that  region.' 

"Massachusetts  had  in  1780  abolished  slavery,  established  public 
schools  for  general  education,  and  framed  the  most  advanced  code  of  laws 

^  Sparks'  edition  of  Washington's  Writings,  Vol.  ix.  p.  385. 


15 

concerning  the  liberties  and  natural  rights  of  man,  civil  jurisprudence, 
and  public  polity,  which  the  world  had  then  seen. 

"The  Ordinance  of  1787  is  a  condensed  abstract  of  the  Massachusetts 
Constitution  of  1780.  Every  principle  contained  in  the  former,  either  in 
a  germinal  or  developed  form,  except  that  relating  to  the  obligation  of 
contracts,  and  some  temporary  provisions  relating  to  the  organization  of 
the  territorial  government,  is  found  in  the  latter,  and  often  in  the  same 
phraseology." 

In  1830  Daniel  Webster,  in  his  answer  to  Hayne,  as- 
cribed the  authorship  to  Nathan  Dane,  of  Massachusetts. 
Mr.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  said  it  was  not  the  work  of  Nathan 
Dane,  but  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia.  Hon.  Edward 
Coles,  Governor  of  Illinois  (1822-26),  in  January,  1856, 
claimed  the  honor  for  Jefferson.  Dr.  Poole  clearly  proved 
that  it  could  not  have  been  the  work  of  Jefferson. 

Of  the  Ordinance,  Daniel  Webster  said: — 

"We  are  accustomed  to  praise  the  lawgivers  of  antiquity;  we  help  to 
perpetuate  the  fame  of  Solon  and  Lycurgus;  but  I  doubt  whether  one 
single  law  of  any  lawgiver,  ancient  or  modern,  has  produced  effects  of 
more  distinct,  marked  and  lasting  character  than  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
We  see  its  consequences  at  this  moment,  and  we  shall  never  cease  to  see 
them  perhaps  while  the  Ohio  shall  flow."  ^ 

Judge  Stor}^  said: — 

"  The  Ordinance  is  remarkable  for  the  brevity  and  exactness  of  its 
text  and  for  its  masterly  display  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  civil 
arid  religious  liberty."  ^ 

Judge  Timothy  Walker  said: — 

"Upon  the  surpassing  excellence  of  the  Ordinance  no  language  of 
panegyric  would  be  extravagant.  The  Romans  would  have  imagined 
some  divine  Egeria  for  its  author.  It  approaches  as  nearly  to  absolute 
perfection  as  anything  to  be  found  in  the  legislation  of   mankind;  for 

1  Daniel  Webster,  Work,  iii,  263. 

2  Story's  Commentaries,  iii.  187. 


i6 

after  the  experience  of  fifty  years  it  would  perhaps  be  impossible  to  alter 
a  word  without  marring  it.  In  short,  it  is  one  of  those  matchless  speci- 
mens of  sagacious  forecast  which  even  the  reckless  spirit  of  innovation 
would  not  venture  to  assail."  ^ 

Dr.  Poole  clearly  showed  that  this  Ordinance  was  the 
work  of  the  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler,  of  Ipswich.  He  admits 
that  it  was  in  the  handwriting  of  Dane,  whom  Webster  cred- 
ited with  being  its  author,  but  both  Dane  and  Cutler  came 
from  Ipswich, — Dane  being  the  member  from  the  Essex  dis- 
trict. Ipswich  was  the  home  of  Nathaniel  Ward,  the  author 
of  the  "Body  of  Liberties,"  and  he  was  the  great  friend  of 
Thomas  Hooker.  It  must  be  that  Congregationalism  in 
Ipswich  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  sound  piety  and  polit- 
ical sagacity,  and  we  imagine  we  know  its  origin.  It  was 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward,  who  was  trained  to  the  law  and  prac- 
tised it  in  England. 

Let  us  examine  one  more  political  document,  famous  as 
a  title-deed  to  liberty, — the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century  a  Congregational  home 
missionary  settled  upon  this  Western  Reserv^e,  at  Tallmadge, 
Ohio,  and  afterward  moved  to  Detroit,  Mich.,  when  a  son 
was  born  to  him.  This  boy  became  one  of  the  heroic,  dis- 
tinguished, and  useful  men  in  the  denomination.  His  name 
was  Leonard  Bacon.  He  wrote  a  tract  on  Slavery  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  another  Western  boy, — Abraham 
Lincoln.  When  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  became 
famous,  and  was  recognized  as  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  the 
Magna  Charta  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  one 
1  Quoted  by  Poole,  No.  Am.  Rev.,  April,  1876. 


17 

of  the  world's  three  title-deeds  to  liberty,  Lincoln  was 
asked  as  to  the  source  of  his  inspiration,  and  he  gave  full 
credit  to  that  tract  of  Dr.  Bacon's  for  its  influence  upon  him 
in  his  earlier  years. ^ 

It  makes  little  difference,  therefore,  at  what  point  we 
analyze  the  waters  of  that  stream  called  "American  History." 
The  simple  elements  are  ever  the  same.  The  Congrega- 
tional idea  is  clearly  revealed.  At  whatever  point  of  vision 
we  view  the  past  four  centuries,  the  same  rugged  truths  stand 
out  in  bold  relief  against  the  sky.  They  are  the  basal  ideas 
of  Congregationalism  on  their  religious  side,  and  American 
democracy  on  their  civil  side.  They  are  religion,  morality, 
knowledge;  liberty,  equality,  democracy.  Individualism  and 
true  socialism;  egoism  and  Christian  altruism;  liberty  by 
bondage  to  truth.  We  find  these  truths  in  the  Connecticut 
Constitution  of  1639,  in  the  Body  of  Liberties  of  1641,  the 
Federal  Compact  of  1643,  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  the  Constitution  of  1789,  and  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  of  1863.  The  Thirteenth 
Amendment,  prohibiting  slavery,  is  identical  with  the  sixth 
clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  All  of  these  documents 
are  the  result  largely  of  the  influence  and  teaching  of  Con- 
gregational clergymen  at  periods  in  the  nation's  history  most 
pivotal  and  critical.  As  a  spiritual  force  and  polity  the 
Congregational  idea  has  been  a  powerful  magnet,  giving 
direction  to  all  the  religious,  civil,  and  political  forces  in 
America.     Thus   the   founders  of  this  nation   were   men   of 

1  Lincoln's  Declaration  to  Dr.  Jos.  P.  Thompson,  Century  Magazine, 
Vol.  XXV.  p.658. 


faith  and  wisdom.  They  went  upon  the  mountain,  and 
Christ  was  transfigured  before  them.  They  worshipped  him. 
When  they  came  down  they  built  three  tabernacles, — one  to 
religion,  one  to  morality,  and  one  to  knowledge. 

It  has  been  said  they  were  narrow.  So  is  electricity,  but 
it  is  concentrated.  Sometimes  it  is  narrow;  sometimes  it  is 
broad.  Strange  such  narrow  men  should  have  been  such 
powerful  metaphysicians  and  theologians  as  Edwards,  Taylor, 
Emmons,  Hopkins,  Stuart,  Finney;  and  should  be  succeeded 
by  such  men  of  breadth  as  Mark  Hopkins,  Noah  Porter, 
Hickok,  and  President  Fairchild.  True,  they  were  Calvinists, 
and  split  hairs  into  sixteenths  over  such  subjects  as  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  the  state  of  the  mind  a  minute  before 
conversion;  the  doctrine  of  election,  of  foreordination.  But 
they  had  a  sense  of  the  immanence  and  sovereignty  of  God, 
and  of  man's  accountability  to  him,  that  would  put  the  amia- 
ble doctrines  of  this  age  to  shame.  Where  are  the  men  to- 
day preaching  the  doctrine  of  sin  and  the  persistence  of 
force  in  character.?  Where  is  the  heroic  truth  that  has  moral 
fibre  and  tissue;  that  has  will  for  the  basis  of  character  in- 
stead of  sentimentalism  or  emotion.?  And  yet  these  fathers, 
while  so  severe  with  themselves,  were  tender  and  beautiful 
in  their  lives,  gentle  in  manner,  and  lovely  in  character.  This 
age  needs  to  learn  that  love  is  made  of  sterner  stuff  than 
sentiment;  that  it  seeks  the  good  of  all,  and  is  not  culti- 
vated for  subjective  purposes.  It  can  shoot  Indians,  throw 
tea  overboard,  and  make  quick  work  with  disturbers  of  the 
public  peace.  They  had  virtue,  moral  dignity,  moral  char- 
acter, because  they  had  freedom  which,  as  they  had  learned 


^9 

from  Christ,  came  from  bondage  to  truth  or  law.  The)-  de- 
fined all  of  life  in  terms  of  faith  and  dut}-,  and  not  in  terms 
of  expediency  or  sentiment. 

Strange,  is  it  not,  that  where  Scotch  piety  prevails  in  its 
sternest  type,  Scotch  bankers  are  the  most  reliable;  where 
parents  are  most  honored,  that  nation  has  outlived  all  others; 
and  where  stern  sense  of  duty  prevailed,  the  most  beneficent 
economic  conditions  flourished. 

The  founders  of  America  went  to  the  heart  of  things,  and 
psychology,  no  less  than  moral  philosophy,  as  it  is  taught  in 
our  universities  to-day,  is  the  gift  of  Congregational  clergy- 
men to  this  age.  But  some  say  they  had  no  religious  tolera- 
tion except  in  theory.  This  is  the  charge  of  the  youngest 
scion  of  the  Adams  family  against  his  own  ancestors  and  the 
founders  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  Neither  had  our  fa- 
thers Winchester  rifles  to  shoot  Indians  with;  nor  could  Paul 
Revere  telephone  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  British;  nor 
did  they  come  over  the  ocean  on  the  White  Star  Line,  or 
bring  stem-winding  watches  with  them.  These,  all,  were  the 
fruit  of  a  later  age.  So  was  religious  toleration.  One  age  must 
not  judge  another  by  its  own  standards.  Brooks  Adams  has 
judged  by  the  standards  of  to-day  the  men  who  founded  Har- 
vard College,  and,  as  Dr.  Poole  well  says  in  his  review  of  the 
book,^  it  bears  evidences  throughout  of  the  work  of  a  callow 
dude. 

But  the  Puritans  sang  psalm  tunes  through  their  noses; 
they  wore  wigs  and  enjoyed  long  sermons;  they  went  to  bed 
early  to  save  candles.  Do  we  not  wish  that  our  slums  could 
1  Emancipation  of  Man. 


be  induced  to  do  the  same?  They  suffered  slavery  to  exist. 
Emmons,  Edwards,  Hopkins,  were  hostile  to  involuntary  ser- 
vitude, and  all  preached  against  it.  Emmons  did  so  when  it 
was  sanctioned  by  his  own  State.      Kidd  says: — 

"The  two  doctrines  which  contributed  most  to  producing  the  extinc- 
tion of  slavery  were  the  doctrine  of  salvation  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  the  Deity."  ^ 

These  two  doctrines  are  the  key-notes  of  Congregationalism. 
Massachusetts  abolished  slavery  in  1780  in  her  Constitution. 
Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut  made  a  partial  abolition  in 
1 784.  De  Tocqueville  prophesied  that  slavery  could  not  long 
exist  in  America  in  contact  with  American  thought,  and  it  did 
not.  Judge  Samuel  Sewall,  in  1700,  printed  a  tract  against 
slavery.      He  said: — 

"  These  Ethiopians,  as  black  as  they  are,  seeing  that  they  are  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  first  Adam,  the  brethren  and  sisters  of  the  last 
Adam,  and  the  offspring  of  God,  they  ought  to  be  treated  with  a  respect 
agreeable." 

The  family  which  did  the  most  in  America  towards  cre- 
ating public  opinion  against  slavery  was  the  Beecher  family, 
— Congregationalists.  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  one  of  the 
greatest  novels  of  history,  was  on  every  tongue,  and  Plymouth 
pulpit  was  protected  by  the  police.  Phillips  Brooks  was  asked 
to  name  the  three  greatest  Americans,  and  he  said:  Daniel 
Webster,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  They 
were  all  great  and  famous,  because  they  were  wedded  to 
those  Congregational  ideas,  liberty  and  equality.  Dean  Stan- 
ley and  Canon  Farrar  both  admitted  that  the  church  polity 
which  the  apostles  acted  upon  was  the  Congregational. 
1  Social  Evolution,  p,  168. 


The  founders  of  American  institutions  believed  in  that 
orderly  development  of  national  life,  evolution  and  not  revo- 
lution, except  as  the  latter  was  necessary  to  right  wrongs 
which  could  be  righted  in  no  other  way.  First  the  blade,  then 
the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  First  the  individual, 
then  the  family,  then  the  church,  then  the  state,  and  finall)'  a 
nation.  The  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  thus 
unfolded.  It  was  nurtured  in  the  township,  it  then  took 
possession  of  the  state,  and  finally  of  the  nation.  They  never 
dreamed  of  a  democratic  Republic  as  being  free,  desirable,  or 
safe  except  as  it  was  founded  on  religion,  morality,  and  edu- 
cation; and  except  as  the  right  of  franchise  was  in  the  hands 
of  integral  units  who  were  themselves  lovers  of  God  and  man. 
Person  and  property  were  to  them  safe  so  far  as  they  were 
held  to  be  sacred. 

And  when  it  came  to  the  individual,  they  had  scientific 
notions  of  his  orderly  development.  They  believed  that  re- 
ligion strengthened  the  will,  clarified  the  intellect,  and  soft- 
ened the  sensibilities.  It  was  not  simply  the  "  sweetness  and 
light"  of  an  aesthetic  dreamer  nor  an  emotion;  but  it  was 
^vill  renewed,  strengthened,  and  healed  from  the  impotency 
caused  by  sin;  it  was  conscience  awakened,  educated,  and 
ever  operative,  giving  the  only  true  conception  of  good-will; 
it  was  thought,  broad  in 'its  sweep  and  comprehensive  in  its 
grasp,  but  none  the  less  synthetic  and  analytic.  It  gave  gen- 
eralizations from  an  absolute  knowledge  of  detail. 

As  Dr.  Poole  said: — 
"From  that  prolific  stock  has  sprung  a  race  of  men  and  women,  who, 


22 

by  character,   energy,  and   ideas,  have   largely   controlled    the   tier  of 
Northern  States  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific."  ^ 

Since  these  men  landed  on  American  shores,  great  ad- 
vancement has  been  made  in  notions  of  relicrious  toleration, 
of  democracy,  and  of  political  liberty;  but  a  loftier  faith  and 
heroism;  a  greater  fortitude  and  self-denial;  a  keener  insight 
into  principles  giving  wisdom  and  political  sagacity  will  never 
be  found  in  the  American  people  than  that  which  character- 
ized the  Founders  of  this  Republic. 

But  the  times  have  changed.  That  tree  planted  by  the 
rivers  of  water,  that  brought  forth  its  fruit  in  due  season, 
whose  leaf  did  not  wither,  and  whatsoever  it  did  prospered, 
is  now  bearing  sour  fruit.  Those  branches  may  be,  for  the 
most  part,  the  engrafted  ones,  but  they  are  none  the  less  a 
part  of  the  tree.  It  may  not  have  been  wise  to  engraft  so 
many,  but  it  has  been  done,  and  it  is  our  duty  faithfully  and 
with  confidence  in  God,  to  treat  them  as  a  part  of  the  tree, 
for  whose  fruit,  be  it  good  or  bad,  we  are  responsible.  Let 
us  examine  the  tree  and  its  fruits. 

And  the  first  thing  we  notice  is  the  swarms  of  parasites 
that  are  living  upon  it  and  eating  into  its  very  life.  The 
ideas  which  were  once  considered  an  inspiration  are  being 
superseded,  though  we  believe  only  temporarily.  They  are 
like  the  pulpit  behind  which  once  officiated  an  eminent  New 
England  divine,  whom  Judges  and  Governors  delighted  to 
honor,  but  which  is  now  stored  away  under  the  hay  in  the 
loft  of  an  old  barn.  And  when  it  is  the  fashion  to  copy  the 
old  New  England  homestead, — its  colonial  architecture,  so 
1  Dial,  Jan.  1891. 


23 

severe  and  simple;  its  low  ceilings,  small  windows;  its  open 
fireplace,  with  the  crane,  the  spit,  the  kettles,  the  bellows, 
and  even  the  andirons  and  tongs, — who  knows  but  it  may 
yet  be  the  fashion,  and  our  clergymen  will  yet  esteem  it  an 
honor,  to  preach  behind  those  old  pulpits,  and  again  exalt 
the  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin 
with  its  sure  reward.  Who  knows  but  the  great  mass  of 
common  people  may  yet  learn,  by  bitter  experience  in  the 
wilderness,  that  the  way  to  the  promised  land  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever;  not  by  materialism  and  ra- 
tionalism, which  give  expediency  in  the  place  of  faith  for  a 
rule  of  conduct,  but  by  following  religion,  morality,  and 
knowledge  as  leaders,  instead  of  politics  and  economics. 

But  that  tree  under  whose  branches  the  fowls  of  the  air 
have  found  lodgment  and  shelter;  which  poet  and  scholar  in 
every  age  have  praised,  from  Coleridge  to  our  own  Whittier 
and  Holmes;  from  DeTocqueville  to  Bryce  and  Von  Hoist,  is 
now  passing  through  a  new  experience.  Cut  it  down,  shrieks 
the  anarchist;  Replant  it,  cries  the  socialist;  Shower  it  with 
acid,  says  the  economist;  Let  me  manage  it,  says  the  dema- 
gogue. But  the  true  husbandman  has  it  under  his  own  care. 
He  planted  it,  he  digged  about  for  it,  he  trimmed  it,  cared 
for  it  when  it  was  a  sapling,  and  now  he  is  simply  pruning 
it  that  it  may  bring  forth  m.ore  fruit. 

We  cannot  agree  with  President  Eliot,  that  the  Mor- 
mons resemble,  in  any  particular,  the  founders  of  this  re- 
public; nor  are  we  attracted  by  the  intimation  of  doubt  in 
his  latest  inquiry  as  to  whether  this  country  can  endure.^ 
1  Forum,  Oct.  1894. 


24 

T.  P.  O'Connor,  member  of  Parliament,  has  even  gone  so  far 
as  to  revile  our  Constitution.      He  said: — 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is,  in  my  judgment,  one  of 
the  most  unjustly  eulogized  instruments  of  political  history.  ...  It  is  a 
machine,  which  to  a  large  extent  means  not  the  regulation,  but  the  paral- 
ysis of  government."  ^ 

Von    Hoist    pertinently   asks    if  the   United    States  Senate 
ought  to  be  abolished.^ 

That  scavenger,  the  sparrow,  imported  in  an  evil  hour, 
is  making  war  on  our  native  birds  of  plumage  and  of  song 
that  have  delighted  the  eye  with  their  beauty,  and  have 
filled  our  trees  with  their  melody.  As  Senator  Edmunds 
said  before  the  Squantum  Club,  "We  are  suffering  from  an 
overdose  of  Europe."  Howells  called  upon  Hawthorne  forty 
years  ago,  and  Hawthorne  said  he 'would  like  to  see  some  part 
of  the  country  on  which  the  shadow  of  Europe  had  not 
fallen.'^     In  1840  William  Ellery  Channing  wrote: — 

"Sooner  than  that  our  laboring  classes  should  become  a  European 
populace,  a  good  man  would  almost  wish  that  perpetual  hurricanes  driv- 
ing every  ship  from  the  ocean,  should  sever  wholly  the  two  hemispheres 
from  each  other.  .  .  .  Anything,  everything,  should  be  done  to  save  us 
from  the  social  evils  which  deform  the  old  world."* 

Washington  urged  the  American  people  to  remain  so 
far  as  possible  isolated  from  Europe.  President  Woolsey 
showed  that  the  question  of  "Equilibrium,"  which  occasions 
so  much  solicitude  and  diplomacy  in  foreign  nations,  could 
never  disturb  us,  owing  to  our  isolation.      But  the  equilib- 

1  Chicago  Tribune,  Sept.  14,  1894. 

2  Monist,  October,  1894. 

3  Harper's  Magazine,  August,  1894,  p.  444. 
*  Channing's  Works,  p.  65. 


25 

rium  of  forces  within  our  nation  is  a  far  more  serious  ques- 
tion and  an  inviting  field  for  thought.  And  this  question 
arises  because  of  the  rapid  development  of  our  manufactur- 
ing industries  paying  much  larger  wages  than  in  Europe, 
and  our  untilled  lands  offering  hope  of  reward.  The  conse- 
quent result  is  an  enormous  influx  of  foreigners,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  dependent,  deficient,  and  delinquent  classes. 

We  cannot  here  give  all  the  statistics  of  immigration. 
They  are  alarming.  Dr.  Strong  estimates  the  foreign  popu- 
lation from  the  Tenth  Census  to  be  15,000,000,  and  in  1900 
estimates  it  will  be  43, 000,000, -^     He  says: — 

"During  the  past  four  years  we  have  suffered  a  peaceful  invasion  by 
an  army  more  than  twice  as  vast  as  the  estimated  number  of  Goths  and 
Vandals  that  swept  over  Southern  Europe  and  overwhelmed  Rome."- 

And  what  does  life  in  the  slums  show.^  The  Hon.  Car- 
roll D.  Wright,  in  his  seventh  special  report  to  the  President, 
reports  that  liquor  saloons  and  illiteracy  flourish  in  the  slums 
and  among  foreign  born  nearly  as  two  to  one,  compared  with 
native  born.  The  foreign-born  voters  are  as  follows:  Balti- 
more, 20.13  per  cent;  Chicago,  50.62  per  cent;  New  York, 
49.93  per  cent;  Philadelphia,  29.94  per  cent.  Vice,  disease, 
and  crime  follow  these  statistics  intimately.  Venality  in 
voting  is  increasing  rapidly,  for  politics  is  not  slow  to  trade 
on  the  miseries  of  the  poor.  Demagogism  is  rampant,  and 
the  thought  which  once  held  men  seems  no  longer  able  to 
control  them.  As  Kidd  says,  "The  fact  of  our  time  which 
overshadows  all  others  is  the  arrival  of  Democracy." 

We  agree  with  him,  but  it  is  not  that  Demos  whom  our 

1  Our  Country,  p.  40.       -  Ibid.,  p.  30. 


26 

fathers  knew  who  has  been  honored  and  respected  in  this 
country  as  a  familiar  figure  for  two  and  a  half  centuries.  It 
is  a  foreign  Demos  who  frequents  the  saloon;  sells  his  vote, 
which  the  American  people  have  so  generously  bestowed 
upon  him;  who  shouts  for  Coxe}'  and  Debs.  It  is  not  the 
Demos  who  was  a  friend  to  Thomas  Hooker  in  1639.  It  is 
a  foreign  Demos  who  has  had  good  cause  to  find  fault  abroad 
with  the  laws  of  primogeniture,  entailment,  landed  aristocracy 
and  titled  nobility.  Such  an  environment  as  European  na- 
tions furnish,  makes  Demos  a  divine  missionary  there,  but  he 
cannot  frame  the  same  indictment  against  American  institu- 
tions that  he  would  against  monarchies  and  have  it  hold. 

The  great  friend  and  ally  of  Demos  is  Politics.  Some 
evil  spirit  has  led  Politics  upon  an  high  mountain,  and  showed 
him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  said  unto  him,  "All 
these  things  will  I  give  thee  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship me."  Of  course  Politics  says:  "Is  thy  servant  a  dog 
that  he  should  do  this  thing.^"  And,  as  Dr.  Bacon  said, 
"the  dog  did 'it."  We  know  there  is  one  flaw  in  that  prom- 
ise of  that  evil  spirit  to  Politics:  he  cannot  deliver  the  goods. 
But  politics  has  no  faith, — it  is  selfish,  materialistic,  ration- 
alistic, full  of  expedients  and  of  demagogism. 

The  influence  of  politics  upon  thought  is  most  marked. 
Economics  has  already  begun  to  bow  the  knee  and  worship 
at  the  sound  of  the  cornet,  flute,  harp,  sackbut,  psaltery,  and 
dulcimer;  but  there  are  three,  like  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abednego,  who  will  never  bow  the  knee  to  the  golden  image. 
They  are  Religion,  Morality,  and  Knowledge.    They  are  pass- 


27 

ing  through  the  fiery  furnace  cf  experience,  and  for  centuries 
have  been  tried. 

There  is  a  deal  of  misapprehension  in  this  day  on  the 
wage  question.  There  are  man}^  industries  in  which  the  toil- 
ers are  underpaid;  and  many,  in  which  the  women  and  chil- 
dren compete,  that  are  positively  wicked  and  shameful.  But 
these  are  forgotten  in  the  scramble  of  well-paid  men  for  more, 
and  are  used  largel}^  as  texts  merely  to  show  up  the  miseries 
of  the  poor  and  oftener  as  pretexts,  or  a  justification  of  vio- 
lence. The  great  body  of  intelligent  workmen  employed  in 
the  manufacturing  industries  in  the  United  States  are  well 
paid,  considering  the  qualifications  required;  for  it  is  ever  true 
that  the  more  mind  that  is  mixed  with  muscle,  the  greater 
the  reward.  That  is  all  that  distinguishes  "skilled"  work- 
men. Few  millionaires,  comparatively,  have  made  their  for- 
tunes in  manufacturing,  and  the  few  that  have  so  acquired  it 
were,  for  the  most  part,  protected  by  patents,  which  is  a  tes- 
timony to  brain,  and  not  to  brawn. 

The  American  people  are  sympathetic,  they  love  fair 
play;  hence,  the}'  are  easily  misled  by  demagogues  of  the  press 
and  platform  upon  the  subject  of  the  relation  of  capital  to 
labor.  The  truth  is  that  both  capital  and  labor  are  drugs  in 
the  market  to-da}-,  and  what  is  needed,  is  men  of  executive 
ability  and  brains  to  bring  them  together  to  their  mutual  ad- 
vantage. Brains  are  never  a  drug  in  the  market.  It  costs 
more  to  sell  a  piano  than  to  make  it.  The  laborers  imagine 
that  when  an  article  is  created  it  is  sold.  They  seem  to  think 
it  sells  itself.  They  find  no  use  for  executive  ability,  and  very 
little  for  capital.     The  everlasting  proposition  of  economics, 


overlooked  by  many,  is  this:  Every  vianiifactured  article  is 
the  prodiict  of  brains,  capital,  and  braivn.  The  laborers  say: 
"We  move  the  world  because  you  cannot  do  without  us"; 
but  capital  and  executive  force  have  an  equal  right  to  make 
the  same  claim.  It  is  a  tripartite  agreement,  and  no  one  of 
the  three  partners  can  claim  the  entire  honor  or  credit  for  the 
result.  Interest  for  capital,  salaries  for  the  brain-worker,  and 
wages  for  the  manual  toiler.  Capital  is  the  heart;  brains  the 
head;  and  labor  the  hands.  One  cannot  do  without  the  others; 
but,  taken  together,  they  produce  results.  Capital  and  ability 
are  under  the  same  obligations  to  share  with  labor  their  part 
of  the  product  that  a  woman  is  to  divide  her  wardrobe  with 
the  cook;  or,  a  clergyman  on  a  good  salary  to  share  his  earn- 
ings with  the  sexton;  or,  the  lawyer  to  pay  the  office  student 
for  the  first  year's  work  in  his  office.  It  is  a  matter  of  Chris- 
tian duty,  and  not  of  legalit}';  it  is  a  question  of  Christian 
stewardship,  and  not  of  law.  When  labor  organizations,  there- 
fore, demand,  as  a  legal  or  moral  right,  what  is  theirs  only  by 
the  higher  laws  of  the  spiritual  kingdom,  and  then  only  as  the 
free  gift  of  the  steward,  they  are  making  their  necessities  the 
ground  for  legal  action.  This  is  precisely  what  the  anarchist 
does.  Just  here  is  where  so  many  clergymen  find  themselves 
on  the  same  platform  with  violators  of  law.  Poverty,  from 
whatever  cause,  becomes  not  simply  a  misfortune,  and  de- 
serving of  help,  but  the  ground  for  an  indictment  against  so- 
ciety;  and,  therefore,  a  legal  demand. 

This  distinction  is  important,  and  must  be  kept  clearly  in 

mind;  for  the  demands  of  labor  to-day  are  not  based   upon 

'grounds  of  brotherhood,  good-will,  and  Christian   steward- 


29 


ship,  for  that  is  benevolence,  but  upon  grounds  of  legal  jus- 
tice and  natural  rights.  Hence  Commons'  new  book^  says 
that  a  right  to  employment  is  a  natural  right  of  man, — a 
most  dangerous  and  absurd  proposition  to  teach  the  }^oung, 
but  it  is  being  taught  in  our  schools.  The  Chicago  Jo7ii-nal 
of  Political  Economy  says  the  book  is  a  disguised  attempt  at 
socialism. 

The  attack  which  is  made  on  our  industries  by  labor  or- 
ganizations in  the  form  of  demands  for  wages  that  are  out  of 
all  proportion  to  those  paid  in  other  countries,  is  doing  more 
to  crush  them  than  foreign  competition  or  free  trade.  The 
protection  which  American  industries  need  to-day  is  a  deeper 
feeling  of  loyalty  to  invested  capital,  which  must  have  its 
just  reward  or  it  will  seek  new  fields  for  activity;  and  to  ex- 
ecutive abilit}',  which  is  always  the  wise  captain  that  leads  to 
victory.  These  deserve  protection  no  less  than  the  manual 
toiler.  The  London  Times,  in  commenting  on  the  Debs  strike, 
said  editorially: — 

"The  questions  of  currency,  depreciation,  silver,  etc.,  sink  into  insig- 
nificance compared  with  the  immense  reduction  in  the  returns  on  capital 
due  to  a  continual  rise  in  wages." 

The  Wall  Street  Daily  News  gives  a  list  of  three  hun- 
dred million  dollars  of  income  bonds,  not  made  of  water,  which 
have, — Avith  the  exception  of  eleven  million  dollars, — never 
paid  a  cent  of  income,  and  the  eleven  millions  very  little. 
Where  can  money  be  invested  in  manufacturing  industries  that 
are  safe  1  The  condition  of  our  railroads — their  earnings,  and 
the  number  in  the  hands  of  receivers, — will  reveal  the  undis- 
1  Distribution  of  Wealth. 


puted  fact  that  the  wage-earners  on  raih-oads  are  receiving 
their  full  share  of  the  product  or  receipts. 

The  Massachusetts  "Report  on  Statistics  of  Labor"  of 
1890  will  prove  interesting  reading.  On  "Net  Profits"  it 
says: — 

"  The  year  selected  was  a  normal  one.  Returns  from  137  cotton  goods 
establishments  show  that  allowing  five  per  cent  for  capital  and  ten  per 
cent  for  depreciation  and  selling  expenses  there  was  no  net  profit  but 
actual  loss.  Allowing  two  per  cent  for  depreciation  and  one  per  cent 
for  selling  expenses  the  profit  left  was  2.23  per  cent  to  reward  capital  for 
its  part  of  the  product." 

The  truth  is,  that  monopolies  and  trusts  began  largely 
as  economic  necessities  owing  to  the  increased  demands  of 
labor.  Trusts  have  thus  increased  and  grown  until  now  they 
menace  the  state.  Capital  is  moved  by  the  law  of  self-pres- 
ervation, no  less  than  other  forms  of  life.  Combinations  of 
capital  have  arisen  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing  the  cost 
of  production,  because  organized  labor  has  taken  the  lion's 
share  of  the  product  in  many  industries,  not  protected  by 
patents  or  by  a  high  tariff.  The  professors  in  our  colleges 
arid  universities  have  far  greater  justification  for  organizing, 
and  going  on  strikes,  than  the  workmen  in  nineteen  cases 
out  of  twenty;  for  our  professors  have  a  large  capital  invest- 
ment in  the  form  of  an  education.  Imagine  the  professors 
of  a  college,  as  the  chapel  bell  strikes  for  recitation,  going 
out  in  a  body,  picketing  the  campus  to  keep  out  competition, 
and  watching  the  railroad  trains  to  inquire  of  every  stranger 
who  has  unusual  space  above  the  eyes,  if  he  is  coming  to 
supplant  the  poor,  over-worked,  down-trodden,  and  despised 
professors. 


31 

Seventy-one  per  cent  of  the  nation's  wealth  is  in  the 
hands  of  nine  per  cent  of  the  population,  it  is  said.  If  so, 
it  were  a  grievous  fault,  and  grievously  hath  Caesar  answered 
it.  The  truer  proportion,  considering  foreign  born,  depend- 
ents, delinquents,  and  deficients,  is  that  fifty  per  cent  of  our 
wealth  is  in  the  hands  of  twenty  per  cent  of  the  people. 

Let  us  not  be  interpreted  as  saying  a  word  against 
ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  poor.  This  is  a  duty 
pressing  upon  the  American  people,  not  because,  in  the 
main,  the  lower  classes  have  been  exploited  or  robbed  or  de- 
prived of  any  rights, — though  the  exceptions  to  this  general 
rule  are  many  and  distressing,  and  deserving  of  legal  redress 
in  the  form  of  s^tatutory  regulation;  but  because  the  great 
laws  of  brotherhood  and  good-will  enforced  by  the  spirit  and 
precepts  of  Christianity  make  humanity  one.  This  takes  on 
the  form  of  friendship  and  fellowship  no  less  than  of  charity; 
and  of  justice  in  the  way  of  legal  enactments  regulating 
hours  of  labor,  child  labor,  sweat  shops,  and  any  forms  of 
injustice  where  man's  greed  overlooks  the  laws  of  humanity. 
Justice,  also,  can  punish  for  violations  of  respect  for  person 
and  property,  whether  on  the  part  of  the  poor  or  the  wealthy. 

We  are  not  arguing  against  the  rights  of  the  poor,  nor 
restricting  the  full  force  of  the  laws  of  Christian  brother- 
hood as  taught  and  exemplified  by  Christ.  We  simply  ob- 
ject to  well  paid  organized  labor,  like  the  Indian,  dodging 
behind  innocent  women  and  children,  whenever  it  is  likely  to 
be  punished  for  its  misdeeds. 

Politics  is  demanding  not  only  that  economics  shall  bow 
the  knee  and  worship,  but  it  is  dictating  terms  to  our  courts 


32 

and  to  the  powers  that  enforce  the  laws.  It  cracks  the  whip 
over  the  heads  of  our  Executive  and  of  our  Judiciary.  It 
demands  a  new  ruling  on  what  constitutes  contempt  of  court; 
it  seeks  favorable  decisions  on  the  rights  of  conspiracy,  and 
strikes  accompanied  by  violence;  and  it  would,  if  it  could, 
compel  arbitration  against  constitutional  rights  whenever 
demagogues  and  wage-earners  put  their  heads  together  and 
need  more  funds  for  campaign  purposes.  It  protects  gam- 
bling, prostitution.  Sabbath  breaking,  and  the  saloon.  Eco- 
nomics has  awakened  to  find  itself  famous.  It  feels  flat- 
tered by  the  attention  it  is  receiving.  It  is  beginning  to  bow 
the  knee.  We  refer  not  entirely  to  the  economics  of  the 
schools;  but  that  of  the  common  people  believed  in  and 
acted  upon  by  the  allies  of  politics.  May  not  standard 
thinkers  be  replaced  by  the  popular  writers  in  course  of 
time  .-* 

Kidd  says: — 

"Socialism  seems  to  many  minds  to  have  been  born  again,  and  to 
be  entering  on  the  positive  and  practical  stage."  ^ 

But  the  theories  of  the  newer  school,  simply  enlarging 
the  limits  of  economics  to  include  all  the  wants  of  man, 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  popular  economics  which 
we  may  call  "demagogical  economics  or  the  economics  of 
the  street  and  of  the  slums."  The  latter  Avould  have  the 
equal  distribution  of  the  product  artificial,  and  not  natural; 
material,  and  not  spiritual.  It  would  have  the  common  peo- 
ple believe  they  can  be  made  happy  by  Act  of  Congress;  by 
environment  and  externals;  and  no  longer  by  homely  hon- 
1  Social  Evolution,  p.  8. 


33 

esty,  vulgar  industry,  and  plebeian  thrift;  not  by  reformation 
from  within.  Wealth  comes  by  inspiration,  not  by  perspira- 
tion, they  think.  Politics,  therefore,  in  company  with  a  vag- 
abond economics,  clothed  in  the  garb  of  saviours,  are  in  the 
van;  while  religion,  morality,  and  knowledge,  the  fruitage  of 
faith  that  once  controlled  men,  have  gone  to  the  rear. 

But  a  new  school  of  Christian  economics  has  arisen, 
endeavoring  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  times  and  the  wants 
of  men. 

"It  is  no  longer  the  school  of  Hobbes,  and  Locke,  of  Hume,  Adam 
Smith,  Bentham,  Ricardo,  and  Mill."  ^ 

The  influence  of  Ruskin  and  Carlyle,  who  never  imag- 
ined themselves  economists,  and  whose  principal  efforts  were 
stray  snarls  or  isolated  indictments  of  the  English  environ- 
ment, have  found  a  fruitage  calling  for  new  writers  like 
Jevons  and  Cliffe  Leslie. 

Professor  Alfred  Marshall  has  widened  out  the  science 
into  an  attempt  to  explain  all  our  social  phenomena,  so  that 
Mr.  Leslie  Stephens'  scientific  principle  comes  nearer  a  stand- 
ard by  which  to  judge: — 

"  A  genuine  scientific  theory  implies  a  true  estimate  of  the  great  forces 
which  mould  institutions  and,  therefore,  a  true  appreciation  of  the  limits 
within  which  they  might  be  modified  by  any  proposed  change." 

To  meet  these  enlarged  views  of  economics  a  comparatively 
new  science  has  arisen  which  we  call  Sociology.  If  we  ex- 
pand economics  to  include  a  study  of  all  the  related  phenom- 
ena of  the  science  of  life  in  its  social  aspects  we  shall  have 
sociology.  And  this  Professor  Simon  N.  Patten  is  endeavor- 
1  See  Kidd,  p.  23. 


34 

ing  to  accomplish.  Man  as  a  bread-winner  is  giving  away  to 
man  in  his  efforts  to  satisfy  all  his  wants.  In  other  words 
economics  is  usurping  the  place  of  religion  and  ethics. 

The  remarkable  fact  of  to-day  is  the  prominence  given  to 
social  themes,  therefore,  and  this  is  the  result  largely  of  the 
arrival  of  Demos.  Economics  and  politics  are  leading  the 
people.  Karl  Marx  has  been  the  Bible  of  the  lower  classes 
in  England,  and  he  was  a  materialist.^ 

"  The  development  which  Marx  contemplated  is,  it  may  be  observed, 
thoroughly  materialistic;  it  takes  no  account  of  those  prime  evolutionary 
forces  which  lie  behind  the  whole  process  of  our  social  development. 
The  phenomenon  which  has  been  called  the  exploitation  of  labor  is  in  no 
way  new  or  special  to  our  time."  ^  "  Social  forces,  new,  strange,  and  alto- 
gether immeasurable  have  been  released  among  us."  "The  one  abso- 
lutely new  and  special  feature  which  distinguishes  the  relations  of  the 
workers  to  the  state  and  to  the  capitalist  class  as  compared  with  all  past 
periods  is  that  the  exploited  classes,  as  the  result  of  an  evolution  long  in 
progress  .  .  .  have  been  admitted  to  the  exercise  of  political  power  on  a 
footing  which  tends  more  and  more  to  be  one  of  actual  equality  with  those 
who  have  hitherto  held  them  in  subjection." 

Kidd's  generalization  will  hold  in  the  American  environ- 
ment only  as  to  the  novelty  of  the  spectacle.  And  Ruskin's 
definition  of  religion  applies  abroad,  and  not  here: — 

"Our  national  religion  is  the  performance  of  Church  ceremonies  and 
preaching  of  soporific  truths  (or  untruths)  to  keep  the  mob  quietly  at  work 
while  we  amuse  ourselves." 

It  is  thus  seen  that  Kidd's  English  Demos  is  not  only  differ- 
ent from  our  American  Demos,  as  he  has  been  known  here  for 
nearly  three  centuries,  but  he  resembles  very  strongly  our 

1  See  Introd.  to  Das  Kapital,  Kidd,  p.  217.        ^  /^/^^  p  318. 


35 

American  politics.  He  is  materialistic,  rationalistic,  and  knows 
no  morals  but  that  of  expediency. 

This  rationalism  and  materialism  which  results  from  fol- 
lowing politics  and  economics  as  leaders  will  usher  in  a  French 
Revolution,  unless  economics  and  politics  are  soundly  con- 
verted and  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance.  As  well 
might  one  hope  for  fruit  in  due  season  from  a  tree  planted 
with  its  branches  in  the  ground  and  its  roots  in  the  air,  as  to 
displace  religion,  morality,  and  knowledge  with  politics  or 
economics,  and  expect  good  fruit.  The  result  will  be  ration- 
alism in  the  place  of  faith,  expediency  in  the  place  of  moral- 
ity, and  error  in  the  place  of  truth.  Politics  and  economics 
cannot  pull  the  beam  out  of  their  own  eye;  how  can  they  see 
clearly  to  pull  out  the  mote  that  is  in  their  brother's  eye! 
We  are  realizing  the  words  of  Macaulay,  that  there  is  no 
tyranny  like  the  tyranny  of  a  democracy.  Utilitarianism,  ma- 
terialism, rationalism,  exalted  by  the  vote  of  a  majority, — in 
other  words,  resulting  from  the  spread  of  the  spirit  of  de- 
mocracy among  the  ignorant  and  vicious, — marks  one  of  the 
earlier  stages  in  the  line  of  development  through  which  a  free 
democratic  republic  must  pass.  If  the  children  in  the  public 
schools  could  elect  their  teachers  by  popular  vote,  we  need 
not  be  surprised  to  find  a  menagerie  at  the  head  of  the  school 
in  the  place  of  wisdom,  iintil  they  learn  by  experience  that 
wild  animals  are  ignorant  and  vicious. 

Majorities  cannot  change  the  nature  of  things.  The  town 
pump  cannot  furnish  milk  by  vote  of  the  people;  sixteen 
parts  of  silver  to  one  of  gold  cannot  be  made  a  true  ratio  by 
Act  of  Congress,  unless  all  nations  agree  to  call  it  so  for  pur- 


36 

poses  of  convenience;  the  principles  of  Euclid  are  not  changed 
by  time  or  by  majorities.  A  nation  must  be  true  to  the  na- 
ture of  things,  and  then  it  will  be  true  to  itself.  Politics  and 
economics  have  not,  never  did  have,  and  never  will  have  the 
qualities  of  leadership.  They  were  present  when  Mary  broke 
the  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  exclaimed:  "Why  was 
not  this  sold  for  three  hundred  pence  and  given  to  the  poor  .^  " 
But  religion,  like  the  sweet  perfume  that  filled  the  house  with 
its  fragrance,  has  never  put  a  money  value  on  affection  or 
spiritual  forces.  It  is  politics  that  is  trying  to  reward  patriot- 
ism with  pay;  while  religion  and  morality  would  provide  for 
the  invalid  from  motives  of  gratitude  and  not  as  assumed 
equivalents. 

The  influence  of  politics  is  seen  again  in  the  demands  of 
socialism,  that  the  state  shall  assume  charge  of  production 
both  in  the  natural  monopolies  and  in  the  competitive  indus- 
tries.    Kidd  seems  to  be  misled  at  this  point  when  he  says: — 

"Socialism  seems  to  many  minds  to  have  been  born  again  and  to  be 
entering  on  the  positive  and  practical  stage."! 

Socialism  is  simply  joining  hands  with  politics  to  defeat  the 
old  conception  of  the  duties  and  functions  of  the  state:  that 
state  is  the  best  which  gives  the  largest  individual  freedom 
compatible  with  the  common  welfare. 

Rev.  Philip  S.  Moxom,  who  is  a  scientific  socialist  and 
makes  the  amusing  claim  that  it  is  identical  with  Christian 
socialism,  says: — 

"England  furnishes,  perhaps,  the  most  notable  example  of  the  pres- 
1  Social  Evolution,  p.  8. 


37 

ent  rapid  progress  towards  socialism  as  evinced  by  its  actual  municipal 
and  national  collectivism."  ^ 

Mr.  Moxom,  it  seems  to  us,  simply  confounds  the  nat- 
ural heat  of  an  excited  body  with  that  which  comes  from  a 
high  fever.  The  natural  monopolies,  which  he  cites  as 
being-  assumed  by  the  government,  are  not  evidences  of  the 
growth  of  socialism.  When  a  government  assumes  exclu- 
sive control  of  the  competitive  and  private  industries,  and 
begins  to  make  soap  and  matches  and  shoes  for  the  people, 
that  will  be  socialism.  England,  Germany,  France,  America, 
have  as  yet  taken  no  practical  steps  in  this  direction.  Mr. 
Moxom  attributes  the  struggle  for  bread  to  selfishness.  He 
confounds  selfishness  with  self-interest, — a  most  common 
and  fatal  blunder  of  emotional  economists.^ 

When  questions  like  the  equitable  distribution  of  the 
product  are  referred  to  Sunday  pulpits  for  solution,  would 
not  Christ  say:  "Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  and  divider 
over  thee.''"  Economic  falsehood  does  not  become  truth  by 
pulpit  indorsement.  The  economic  instincts  of  men  must 
not  be  violated  by  passionate  and  prejudiced  judgments  on 
such  broad  themes  as  distribution  of  property.  The  churches 
that  imagine  they  have  espoused  the  cause  of  wage-earners, 
and  prejudge  their  case,  will  be  the  last  to  gain  the  confi- 
dence of  these  same  wage-earners  when  the  naked  truth  in 
its  heroic  aspects  is  demanded  by  all.  Economics  must  be 
defined  in  terms  of  intellect  and  not  of  emotion.  The 
wage-earners'  indictment  of  society  is  just  here,  and  it  cer- 

1  New  Eng.  Mag.,  March,  1894,  p.  24. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  28. 


38 

tainly  demands  the  most  careful  inquiry,  for  it  can  be  con- 
ceived that  John  might  say  to  nine  out  of  ten,  "Be  content 
with  your  wages."  Christ  might  say:  "Take  that  thine  is 
and  go  thy  way.  Can  I  not  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own?" 
"Did'st  not  thou  agree  with  me  for  a  penny.?"  This  reply 
came  in  answer  to  a  demand  for  artificial  distribution.  As 
R.  T.  Ely  truly  says:— 

"There  is  no  possibility  of  escape  from  toil  and  suffering.  ...  It  is 
the  duty  of  all  those  who  have  the  ear  of  the  masses  to  tell  them  this 
plain  truth,  even  if  it  be  not  altogether  palatable."  ^ 

And  that  genuine  economic  scholar,  Arthur  T.  Hadley, 

says: — 

"A  nation  must  let  intellect  rule  over  emotion  whetheV  it  likes  intel- 
lect or  not.     The  alternative  is  political  and  industrial  suicide."  ^ 

In  a  country  so  conceived  and  developed,  with  such  en- 
lightened principles  for  its  foundation;  amid  forces  so  com- 
plex and  perplexing,  the  Debs  insurrection  came.^ 

1  Forum,  Oct.  1894,  p.  183.         '^Ibid.,  p.  190. 

3  The  question  as  to  whether  it  was  an  insurrection  has  not  yet  been 
decided.  Judge  Grosscup  said  in  his  charge  to  the  Federal  Grand  Jury 
that  indicted  Debs:  "Insurrection  is  a  rising  against  civil  or  political  au- 
thority; an  open  and  active  opposition  of  a  number  of  persons  to  the 
execution. of  laws  in  a  city  or  state.  Now  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
forbid  under  penalty  any  person  from  obstructing  or  retarding  the  pass- 
age of  the  mails  and  make  it  the  duty  of  the  officer  to  arrest  such  of- 
fenders and  bring  them  before  the  court.  If,  therefore,  it  shall  appear 
to  you  that  any  person  or  persons  have  wilfully  obstructed  or  retarded 
the  mails,  and  that  their  attempted  arrest  for  such  offense  has  been  op- 
posed by  such  a  number  of  persons  as  would  constitute  a  general  upris- 
ing in  that  particular  locality,  and  as  threatens,  for  the  time  being,  the 
civil  and  political  authority,  then  the  fact  of  an  insurrection  within  the 
meaning  of  the  law  has  been  established."  The  definition  adopted  by 
the  court  is  from  Webster's  Dictionary.     Anderson's  Dictionary  of  Law 


39 

The  forces  which  gave  it  birth  had  been  developed  by- 
well-known  causes,  and  are  so  plain  that  a  wayfaring  man, 
though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein.  They  were  hatred  of 
capital  by  labor;  the  rise  and  growth  of  organized  labor  unions 
which  look  to  politics  for  salvation ;  the  growing  disrespect  of 
these  unions  for  law,  and  their  vicious  practices  in  contrast 
with  their  honied  theories;  the  increase  of  demagogism  and  of 
its  friend  and  ally,  the  saloon;  the  natural  envy  and  hatred  of 
the  unsuccessful  and  the  unfortunate  for  the  successful  and 
well-to-do;  false  political  economy  of  the  slums  as  to  the  or- 
igin of  value  and  the  causes  of  poverty;  emotional  sympathy 
on  the  part  of  many  for  those  who  are  reaping  the  results  of 
violated  law, — not  distinguishing  between  the  Lord's  poor 
and  the  devil's  poor;  amiable  answers  to  socialism,  and  sweet- 
ened rose-water  for  criminals;  the  pardon  of  the  anarchists, 
and  reviling  of  the  courts  by  a  demagogue  Governor;  mo- 
nopolies and  trusts  that  threaten  to  destroy  the  State;  in- 
difference of  the  educated  classes  to  politics;  wrong  notions 
of  liberty,  equality,  and  the  rights  of  property  among  the 
voting  majority;  and,  finally,  the  inflammable  material  in  the 
form  of  ignorant  foreignism  that  welcomes  any  change  as  one 
for  the  better,  that  follows  the  beck  and  nod  of  demagogues, 
and,  that,  in  our  congested  cities,  creates  our  judiciary.  Pull- 
man's treatment  of  his  employes,  while  it  was  apparently  ut- 
terly selfish,  was  not  the  cause  of  the  Debs  insurrection.      It 

defines  insurrection  to  be:  "A  rising  against  civil  or  political  authority; 
the  open  and  active  opposition  of  a  number  of  persons  to  the  execution 
of  the  law  in  the  city  or  state."  It  cites  Allegheny  County  vs.  Gibson, 
90  Pa.,  417  (1879).  The  jury  found  a  true  bill  against  Debs  on  this 
ground,  judging  from  the  evidence. 


40 

was,  at  *the  most,  merely  the  occasion  of  it,  and  need  not 
again  be  mentioned.  It  was  the  best  text  that  could  be 
found  to  serve  as  a  pretext  for  violence;  but  Debs'  genuine 
regard  for  the  Pullman  emplo3^es  finds  as  little  convincing 
proof  as  the  proposition  that  Pullman  built  fine  houses  to  im- 
prove the  character  of  his  men  through  their  environment 
rather  than  to  make  a  fine  appearing  town  which  should  bear 
his  name  and  be  profitable  and  creditable  to  him.  Pullman's 
evident  attempt  to  pose  as  a  philanthropist  and  as  the  gen- 
uine friend  of  his  wage-earners  will  not  bear  investigation. 
As  such,  he  was,  howev^er,  better  than  Debs. 

But  who  was  Debs.^  Was  he  to  the  manor  born  and 
in  sympathy  with  our  institutions,  a  lover  of  law  and  order.? 
Did  he  go  forth  to  battle  in  behalf  of  the  down-trodden  and 
oppressed,  inspired  by  a  deep  sense  of  their  wrongs;  jeopar- 
dizing his  own  life  and  liberty  by  espousing  conscientiously 
the  cause  of  labor .''  Was  he  a  John  Brown  or  a  Nathan  Hale, 
who  forgot  self  in  his  devotion  to  his  notions  of  dut}^.''  Not 
at  all.  He  was  a  graduate  of  an  institution  for  the  cure  of 
drunkards.  He  lived  extravagantly  on  poor  men's  money  at 
the  best  hotel,  smoked  fine  Havanas  and  sent  wordy  tele- 
grams to  his  wife  at  the  expense  of  the  laboring  men.  He 
was  probably  sober  while  the  battle  was  on,  but  was  intoxi- 
cated with  notions  of  his  own  importance  and  of  his  power 
and  influence, — having  just  waged  a  successful  battle  with 
the  Northern  Pacific.  He  was  desperate  in  his  determina- 
tion to  show  his  power  as  a  leader  of  organized  labor,  and 
was  willing  to  paralyze  the  industries  of  a  nation  in  order  to 
do  it.     If  he  thought  to  increase  the  wages  of  the  Pullman 


41 

employes  by  ordering  a  boycott  on  all  Pullman  cars,  and  then 
on  all  railroads  that  sympathize  with  those  roads  that  hauled 
the  Pullman  cars,  he  was  simply  beside  himself.  Debs  knew 
well  the  import  and  result  of  his  orders.  On  July  15th  he 
said:— 

"This  is  not  a  strike.     This  is  an  evolutionary  revolution." 
To  the  Railway  Managers  he  wrote: — 

"The  strike,  small  and  comparatively  unimportant  in  its  inception, 
has  extended  in  every  direction,  until  now  it  involves  or  threatens  not 
only  every  public  interest,  but  the  peace,  security,  and  prosperity  of  our 
common  country.  The  contest  has  waged  fiercely.  It  has  extended  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  interests  originally  involved  and  has  laid  hold  of  a 
vast  number  of  industries  and  enterprises  in  no  wise  responsible  for  the 
differences  and  disagreements  that  led  to  the  trouble.  Factory,  mill, 
mine,  and  shop  have  been  silenced.  Widespread  demoralization  has 
sway.  The  interests  of  multiplied  thousands  of  innocent  people  are 
suffering.  The  common  welfare  is  seriously  menaced.  The  public 
peace  and  tranquillity  are  in  peril.  Grave  apprehension  of  the  future 
prevails." 

It  thus  appears  that  Debs  knew  well  that  he  was  virtually 
inciting  to  riot  and  insurrection.  The  telegrams  which  he  sub- 
sequently signed  with  his  own  hand,  and  all  of  which  he  de- 
nied in  his  defence,  were,  by  reason  of  this  knowledge,  crim- 
inal and  insurrectionary.  And  he  did  sign  them  himself,  for 
the  Grand  Jury  that  indicted  him  took  pains  to  select  such 
telegrams,  out  of  several-  thousand,  as  bore  his  own  hand- 
writing, knowing  that  he  would  probably  deny  all  others.^ 
And  what  did  the  Mayor  of  Chicago  do  ?  He  took  from 
this  Dictator  the  permit  to  remove  some  dead  animals  for  the 
sake  of  the  public  health.  Who  shall  say  that  politics  has 
1  The  writer  of  this  article  was  a  member  of  the  Grand  Jury. 


42 

not  usurped  the  place  of  morality  in  the  leadership  of  the 
common  people?     What  is  treason? 

Article  III.  Section  3  of  the  Constitution  says: — 

"  Treason  against  the  United  States  shall  consist  only  in  levying  war 
against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and  com- 
fort." 

Did  Debs  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies  of  this  govern- 
ment, or  are  the  enemies  of  a  nation  only  hostile  foreigners 
M^ho  would  destroy  it? 

Article  V.  Amendment  of  the  Constitution  says: — 

"Nor  shall  any  person  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  with- 
out due  process  of  law." 

The  Debs  insurrection   cost  nearly  a  hundred  lives  and  as 

many  millions  of  dollars.     Was  this  constitutional? 

Article  VIII.  says: — 

"  Cruel  and  unusual  punishments  shall  not  be  inflicted." 

Debs  said: — 

"The  public  need  not  come  to  us  with  supplications,  for  we  shall  not 
hear  them"  (July  13th). 

And  what  say  the  leaders  of  the  labor  organizations  of  this 
insurrection  ?  Not  one  has  condemned  it,  nor  have  the  unions 
done  so  by  any  resolutions.  Mr.  Robert  Bandlow,  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  takes  exceptions  to  this  statement,  and  says  that 
Mr.  Sovereign's  order  to  strike  was  not  obeyed,  and  that  Mr. 
Gompers'  opinions  must  not  be  confounded  with  those  of  the 
individuals  who  compose  the  unions.  Mr.  Arthur's  refusal 
to  join  the  Debs  strike  and  to  order  out  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  is  also  cited.    The  writer  refers  to  pub- 


43 

lie  utterances  of  labor  unions,  not  on  the  folly  of  the  strike, 
but  on  its  wickedness.  They  condemned  President  Cleveland 
for  interfering  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  innocent 
citizens  who  had  looked  in  vain  to  a  sycophant  Mayor  and  a 
demagogue  Governor  for  protection.  The  representatives  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  labor  unions  sent  word  to  Governor 
Altgeld : — 

"We  insist  that  your  excellency  take  legal  steps  to  compel  the  with- 
drawal of  said  army  forces  at  once." 

On  July  13th,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  passed  the 
following  resolution: — 

"The  heart  of  labor  everywhere  throbs  responsive  to  the  manly  pur- 
poses and  sturdy  struggle  of  the  American  Railway  Union  in  its  heroic 
endeavor  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  the  Pullman  employes." 

But  they  deemed  a  sympathy  strike  at  that  time  inexpedient! 
At  the  head  of  this  organization  is  the  man  who  usually  pre- 
faces his  public  addresses  with  the  statement  that  labor  pro- 
duces all  value ^;  that  the  laborers  are  the  exploited  classes, 
and  that  capital  is  a  parasite  of  labor.  This  is  Karl  Marx 
pure  and  simple.  It  may  be  asserted,  without  fear  of  contra- 
diction, that  the  wage-earners  in  the  main  hold  the  following 
to  be  self-evident  truths: — 

1.  Value  is  created  by  labor  alone. 

2.  Capital  may  be  the^ruit  of  yesterday's  toil,  but  it  takes  an  unjust 
part  of  the  product. 

3.  Executive  ability  plays  little  or  no  part  in  production. 

4.  Poverty  is  largely  the  result  of  unjust  distribution. 

5.  The  church  is  the  friend  of  intrenched  capital,  and  not  of  labor. 

1  See  Gompers'  address  in  Boston  at  the  time  of  the  Homestead  riots, 
and  in  Chicago  on  the  Lake  Front  in  1893. 


44 

6.  The  hope  of  wage-earners  (who  are  "  slaves  ")  is  m  artificial,  and 
not  in  natural,  distribution,  which  must  come  by  law  through  the  friend- 
ship of  politics. 

7.  The  true  friends  of  labor  are,  therefore,  not  religion  or  morality, 
but  politics  and  economics, 

8.  Christ  was  poor  and  a  day  laborer,  a  "walking  delegate";  hence 
he  is  the  wage-earner's  friend,  but  the  churches  neither  know  him  nor 
have  seen  him.     Hence  we  cheer  for  Christ,  and  hiss  the  churches. 

The  Woman's  Federal  Labor  Union  has  resolved  that 
it — 

"Takes  its  stand  with  the  laborers  and  against  the  parasites  who  fat- 
ten upon  them,  for  humanity  andagainst  inhumanity,  for  man  and  against 
mammon,  and  with  our  feeble  strength  we  join  in  the  fight  to  prevent  this 
republic  from  being  destroyed  by  a  plutocratic  despotism." 

Was  it  a  chance  that  the  Debs  insurrection  occurred  in 
a  city  like  Chicago,  the  new  centre  of  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, whose  population  is  so  largely  foreign;  where  the  an- 
archists were  hung,  and  where  the  most  daring  projects,  bad 
as  well  as  good,  are  carried  out, — a  city  distinguished  for  its 
ambition,  enterprise,  heroism,  philanthropy,  and  faith  no  less 
than  for  its  crimes,  pauperism,  and  dirt.  Was  it  a  chance 
that  it  came  in  a  city  whose  Mayor  is  a  demagogue;  in  a 
State  whose  Governor  is  ineligible  to  the  office  of  President  of 
the  United  States  because  he  was  born  in  Prussia.^  Where 
was  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution  when  that  insurrection  came; 
where  were  the  ideas  of  law  and  order  so  essential  to  the  per- 
manency and  safety  of  a  self-governed  people.'' 

Von  Hoist  says^  the  highest  type  of  commonwealth  con- 

^  A  foreign  citizen  is  one  who  remains  alien  to  the  spirit  of  our  insti- 
tutions and  ignorant  of  American  ideas  of  liberty  and  law.  He  may  be 
born  abroad  or  in  America. 

2  Journal  of  Political  Economy  for  September. 


45 

ceivable  to  the  human  mind  is  that  in  which  the  rule  of  men 
is  wholly  supplanted  by  the  government  of  law  in  the  sense: 
(i)  that  no  authority  is  possessed  by  the  rulers  except  as  or- 
gans of  the  law;  (2)  that  all  the  members  of  the  common- 
wealth are  equaljy  and  absolutely  subject  to  the  law.  This 
is  precisely  the  conception  of  Thomas  Hooker  in  1639. 
Must  these  conceptions  be  laid  aside  at  the  behest  of  labor  or- 
ganizations that  war  on  our  Republic  no  less  than  on  capital 
for  the  sake  of  a  little  more  gain? 

A  scientific  formula  for  producing  insurrection  and  riot 
that  will  destroy  a  free  democratic  republic  may  here  be 
given : — 

1.  Adopt  a  high  protective  tariff,  thus  increasing  wages.  Thus 
close  the  gates  to  foreign  goods. 

2.  Open  the  gates  wide  to  the  toilers  who  make  the  goods.  Put  no 
restriction  on  immigration. 

3.  Make  the  price  of  an  ocean  passage  ten  dollars. 

4.  Adopt  these  foreigners  into  our  national  family  as  citizens  with 
the  right  of  franchise  without  pi'operty  or  character  qualifications. 

5.  Elect  the  executive  and  judiciary  by  popular  vote. 

6.  Make  the  cities  attractive  by  taxing  the  property  owners  for 
parks,  boulevards,  free  concerts  and  amusements. 

7.  In  such  congested  centres  where  wealth  and  luxury  are  side  by 
side  with  squalor  and  filth  let  the  demagogue  incite  to  hatred  and  pas- 
sion by  false  teaching  as  to  the  causes  of  poverty. 

8.  Elect  these  demagogues  guardians  of  the  peace;  let  them  make, 
interpret,  and  enforce  the  laws. 

9.  Organize  the  wage-earners  into  unions  and  then  confederate  these 
unions.     Elect  leaders  whose  commands  are  authoritative. 

10.  Warn  them  against  religion,  morality,  and  knowledge  as  allies 
of  capital;  exalt  politics  and  economics  as  their  friends. 

11.  Put  a  drunkard,  an  atheist,  an  alien  at  the  head  of  all  for  abso- 
lute dictator,  and  then  await  the  result. 


46 

The  result  may  be  riots,  mobs,  insurrection,  revolution, 
anything  that  is  lawless  and  destructive. 

And  this  was  the  environment:  churches  for  the  wealthy, 
jails  for  the  poor;  hungry  children  trying  to  support  Avid- 
owed  mothers  by  selling  papers  on  the  street  for  a  cent  apiece 
while  they  stare  through  the  windows  at  children  with  hun- 
dred-dollar dolls  and  fifty-dollar  poodle-dogs;  the  common 
people,  hungry  and  hollow-eyed,  like  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd, rushing  after  every  new  ism  like  anarchism,  communism, 
socialism,  Georgeism,  Bellamyism;  or  after  every  false  Christ 
like  politics  or  economics,  only  to  be  deceived  and  used,  and 
then  to  become  discouraged,  hardened,  desperate.  Then  come 
suffering,  want, degradation, starvation.  Then  organized  char- 
ities giving  us  alms-giving  and  consequent  pauperism.  Is  it 
a  wonder  that  Debs  paralyzed  the  industries  of  the  country  .-^ 
But  unless  law  is  upheld,  and  Debs  I.  is  punished  for  his 
crimes.  Debs  II.  or  Debs  III.  will  overturn  the  government.-^ 

Debs  is  now  trying  to  form  a  new  secret  organization  with 
the  same  hatred  for  law  and  order;  with  even  greater  confi- 
dence in  politics  and  false  economics  for  breastworks.  From 
their  new  vantage-ground  such  men  will  again  try  their  hand 
when  a  President  is  in  power  who  does  not  wear  a  number  19 
collar;  when  a  more  desperate  set  of  demagogues  dare  defy 
the  United  States  to  call  out  troops  in  defence  of  person  and 
property.  Their  ranks  will  be  filled  with  the  hungry,  the 
criminals,  the  haters  of  mankind.  That  most  despicable 
and  dangeroHS  class,  who  trade  on  the  miseries  of  the  poor 
— the  cheap  newspaper — will  encourage  and  applaud  their 
1  Von  Hoist. 


47 

rioting,  and  endeavor  to  make  public  opinion  to  justify  their 
action. 

Surely  the  times  have  changed.  To  many  they  seem 
to  have  changed  for  the  worse;  but  a  step  in  the  line  of  de- 
velopment, even  if  it  be  downward,  must  not  be  interpreted 
as  retrogression.  Society  sometimes  seems,  like  a  huge 
wave,  to  go  downward,  before  rising  with  renewed  momen- 
tum to  a  greater  height.  There  are  greater  hopes  awakened 
among  the  world's  weary  toilers  than  history  has  heretofore 
Avitnessed,  and  it  is  an  omen  for  good,  though  attended  with 
temporary  frictions.  We  should  not  interpret  society's 
growth  in  the  spirit  of  pessimism,  or  have  a  thought  of 
doubt  as  to  God's  evident  plans  for  the  raising  of  humanity 
to  a  higher  level  than  the  world  has  yet  dreamed  of  But 
the  mistakes  of  humanity  which  retard  and  postpone  the 
fulfilment  are  the  real  enemies  of  the  people;  and  the  mis- 
taken and  misled  are  easily  enrolled  in  the  ranks  of  anarchy 
and  disorder. 

The  emancipation  of  the  masses  must  surely  come. 
Those  who  have  been  bound,  lo  these  many  years,  will  be 
set  free.  But  it  must  come  from  him  who  was  anointed  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  who  came  to  heal  the  broken- 
hearted, to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  the  recover- 
ing of  sight  to  the  blind,  and  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised.  In  other  words, —  religion,  morality,  education, 
must  be  the  divine  forerunners  of  politics  and  economics,  in 
a  free  democratic  republic.  The  wage-earners  will  be  won 
not  by  emotion,  but  by  heroic  truth  and  genuine  good-will. 
But  what  will  this  liberty  be.-*    Will  it  be  freedom  from  effort, 


48 

from  industry,  from  economy,  from  the  need  of  thrift,  from 
the  inexorable  laws  of  the  economic  world  which  are  as  per- 
manent and  universal  as  the  laws  of  gravitation?  As  well 
might  we  look  for  the  sun  to  rise  in  the  west,  or  for  all  the 
angles  of  a  triangle  to  equal  three  right  angles.  As  well 
might  we  ask  that  the  laws  of  the  universe  be  suspended  or 
abrogated  for  our  selfish  benefit.  But  it  will  come  by  charac- 
ter revolution,  no  less  than  from  environment,  giving  a  love  of 
toil,  a  desire  to  overcome  and  succeed  by  self  denial  and  thrift; 
by  careful  observance  and  obedience  to  law.  But  every  form 
of  oppression  must  cease  and  good-will  must  reign.  The 
wage-earners,  whom  the  world  needs,  must  always  be,  and 
the  reward  for  physical  labor  can  never  be,  great.  It  must, 
however,  be  a  living  wage,  and  the  wage-earners  must  be 
helped  and  respected  as  the  children  of  God  and  our  brethren. 
We  are  all  the  children  of  a  common  Father.  A  nation 
can  never  be  civilized  with  its  masses  brutalized.  It  is  the 
one  opportunity  of  the  ages  to  win  the  world  by  genuine 
friendship,  earnest  devotion  to  truth,  sincere  loyalty  to  the 
eternal  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  which  is  heroic  love. 


HD  , 


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